U.S. and Mexico moving closer on need to develop Central America: Mexico

January 7, 2020 – Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sought to enlist U.S. support for his vision of stemming migration by creating more jobs and opportunities in Central America in the face of skepticism from his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump.

In a speech to diplomats in Mexico City, Ebrard said when Lopez Obrador first put forward the idea in 2018, it looked “almost impossible” given Trump’s tough stance on migrants. “Today the positions are getting closer regarding this development initiative,” Ebrard said.

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Check out our 2019 Migration to and through Mexico Mid-Year Report for more information on migration trends

Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky

Migrants stuck in lawless limbo within sight of America

11/17/19 – AP News

By Maria Verza

The gangsters trawling Nuevo Laredo know just what they’re looking for: men and women missing their shoelaces.

Those are migrants who made it to the United States to ask for asylum, only to be taken into custody and stripped of their laces — to keep them from hurting themselves. And then they were thrust into danger, sent back to the lawless border state of Tamaulipas.

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Tents, stench, smoke: Health risks are gripping migrant camp

11/14/19 – AP News

By Nomaan Merchant

A smoke-filled stench fills a refugee camp just a short walk from the U.S.-Mexico border, rising from ever-burning fires and piles of human waste. Parents and children live in a sea of tents and tarps, some patched together with garbage bags. Others sleep outside in temperatures that recently dropped to freezing.

Justina, an asylum seeker who fled political persecution in Nicaragua, is struggling to keep her 8-month-old daughter healthy inside the damaged tent they share. The baby, Samantha, was diagnosed with pneumonia and recently released from a hospital with a dwindling supply of antibiotics.

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New Migrant Shelter In Mexico Comes With Threats Of Family Separation

11/01/19 – Texas Public Radio

By Dan Katz and Reynaldo Leaños Jr.

Officials in Matamoros, Mexico, are threatening to separate asylum seekers from their children.
When plans were first announced to open a city-run shelter, asylum seekers and U.S. aid workers voiced concerns. If too far away from the International Bridge — where immigration hearings take place — asylum seekers could face transportation and safety issues. The new shelter is located at a gymnasium at Alberca Chavez, about a 30 minute walk from the bridge.

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Vulnerable LGBTQ migrants left to wait in Mexico

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

11/03/19 – The San Diego Union Tribune

By Wendy Fry, Molly Hennesy-Fiske

Pedro Luis Perez arrived at the northern Mexico border in early 2019 looking for safety and asylum in the United States, but instead he spent about 10 months waiting in Tijuana where he said he felt threatened because of his sexual orientation.

Perez was 13 when his parents threw him out of his family home in Guatemala for being gay. He spent much of his youth living on the streets, hunkering down under bridges when it rained.

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US Adds Sixth City to Controversial ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program

10/29/19 – Voice of America

By Victoria Macchi

The U.S. added another city this week to the growing list of locations where asylum-seekers are being returned to Mexico to await their immigration court hearings.

Eagle Pass, Texas, a quiet city on the Rio Grande where border agents have carried out an increased number of migrant apprehensions this year, is the sixth city along the U.S.-Mexico border where the controversial program is under way.

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Mexico: Risks at Border for Those With Disabilities

10/29/19 – Human Rights Watch

Asylum seekers with disabilities waiting in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico for their United States asylum applications to be processed face obstacles to getting basic services, Human Rights Watch said today. Mexico’s government should identify and ensure services for people with disabilities and chronic health conditions.

Human Rights Watch research in Ciudad Juárez – a city across the border from El Paso, Texas – found that the Mexican government does not have a proper system in place there to screen and identify asylum seekers with disabilities and chronic health conditions. The authorities have not ensured physical accessibility in shelters, even new ones. Nor are they consistently providing information about and access to health care for asylum seekers with disabilities or chronic health conditions.

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