Federal appeals court denies Biden administration request to halt order reviving ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

08/20/2021

Source: CNN

A federal appeals court denied the Biden administration’s request to pause a lower court order requiring the revival of a controversial Trump-era border policy forcing migrants to stay in Mexico until their US immigration court date.

The policy, informally known as “remain in Mexico,” was put in place in 2019 and marked an unprecedented departure from previous protocols. An estimated 68,000 migrants were returned to Mexico under the policy — often to squalid and dangerous conditions.

READ MORE

Court orders Biden to reinstate Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

08/14/2021

Source: Reuters

A federal judge has ordered President Joe Biden’s administration to reinstate his Republican predecessor’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which forced tens of thousands of Central American asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court cases.

In a victory for the states of Missouri and Texas, which brought the suit, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said on Friday that the Biden administration had violated laws on procedure by failing to consider “several of the main benefits” of the program and acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in ending it.

READ MORE

Growing Share of Migrants From Outside Mexico, Central America Poses Challenge for Biden

8/16/2021

Source: The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—Migrants from South America, the Caribbean and as far as Eastern Europe are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally at an unprecedented rate, a trend accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic that is raising fresh consternation inside the Biden administration.

Until about seven years ago, nearly all the people crossing into the U.S. were Mexicans in search of work. In 2014, for the first time, the majority of those crossing the southern border became children and families from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador arriving to claim asylum, a dynamic around which the current administration has formed its migration policy response.

READ MORE

UN refugee agency concerned as US deports migrants to southern Mexico

08/11/2021

Source: The Guardian

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern about a new US practice of transferring asylum seekers and migrants expelled under public health orders by plane to southern Mexico.

Those being expelled may have urgent protection needs and risk being sent back to the very dangers they have fled in their countries of origin in Central America without any opportunity to have those needs assessed and addressed, UNHCR said.

READ MORE

Mexico’s Lopez Obrador, Harris discuss migration, boosting Central American economies

08/09/2021

Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on Monday about migration, the battle against COVID-19, and the need to strengthen Central American economies, the White House said in a statement.

In a brief statement on Twitter, Lopez Obrador said the conversation, which started around 4 p.m. (2100 GMT), had been good and that he would provide more details on Tuesday.

READ MORE

Mexico watchdog says migrants overcrowded, no masks or medicine

07/07/2021

Source: Reuters

Mexico’s human rights commission (CNDH) has accused migration authorities of keeping nearly 90 people in overcrowded facilities, without providing masks to protect them against COVID-19 or medicines for epilepsy and diabetes.

The CNDH said 88 migrants are being kept under leaky roofs at a detention center designed to house only 30 people, run by the National Migration Institute (INM) in the northern city of Saltillo in Coahuila state. It also said worms had been spotted in the food.

READ MORE

Migrants held in filthy conditions in Mexico border town

07/02/2021

Source: KVOA Tucson

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s governmental human rights commission says migrants have been detained in filthy conditions in the border town of Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass, Texas.

The commission described visiting a municipal police facility where there was sewage, blocked toilets, rats and a horrendous smell in some cells. The commission said Thursday it found 13 migrants in the facility; while it did not list their nationalities, most migrants detained in Mexico are from Central America.

READ MORE

2-year-old among 100 migrants abandoned in semitrailer in Veracruz

06/29/2021

Source: Mexico News Daily

A boy believed to be two years old was among more than 100 migrants abandoned on a highway in southern Veracruz on Monday after traveling in suffocating conditions in a semitrailer, the National Immigration Institute (INM) announced.

A man traveling in the trailer that was transporting the migrants on the highway between Ocozocoautla, Chiapas, and Las Choapas, Veracruz, was found dead at the same location, having apparently suffocated in the crowded vehicle.

READ MORE

Nearly 3,300 Migrants Stranded in Mexico Were Kidnapped, Raped or Assaulted – Report

06/22/2021

Source: US News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 3,300 migrants stranded in Mexico since January due to a U.S. border policy have been kidnapped, raped, trafficked or assaulted, according to a report by a human rights group released on Tuesday.

The report, by New York-based Human Rights First, documents cases of migrants and asylum seekers stuck in Mexico since U.S. President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20. The number of cases has jumped in recent weeks from roughly 500 such incidents logged in April to 3,300 by mid-June.

READ MORE

Why some people are moving from the United States to Mexico

06/21/2021

Source: The Economist

In the year and a half since Annette and Mike Thompson sold their house in Texas and upped sticks for Mexico, they have had few regrets. Now they live in Ajijic, a pretty town by Lake Chapala in the western state of Jalisco. Their large house has a spectacular view over the water, where birds glide in the late afternoon breeze. “The only thing we miss is Tex-Mex food,” says Mrs Thompson.

The clichéd view of Mexico is that it is poor and crime-ridden. Popular tv series, such as “Narcos: Mexico”, do little to dispel this image. The reality has long been more nuanced, as more Americans are realising. The us State Department reckons 1.5m live south of the border, making them the largest group of immigrants in Mexico and the largest group of Americans outside the United States (Mexico counts fewer: around 800,000). The largest single community of non-military American expats in the world is in Mexico’s west, close to Guadalajara.

READ MORE