US Pressures Mexico to Shift Immigration Policy
Mexico’s immigration policy has moved from one promising to help migrants to another characterized by militarized enforcement under the growing influence of the country’s foreign secretary and pressure from the U.S. government.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has faced pointed criticism from the left about the change in direction.
But Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard made clear this week after a meeting at the White House that Mexico plans to stick with the get-tough approach that has succeeded in reducing the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S. border.
Honduran migrant Dunea Romero, 31, helps make Honduran style nachos at the migrant shelter where she is living in Tijuana, Mexico, as she waits for her next asylum hearing in the U.S., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, on the border with San Diego. Romero, who was married to a powerful gang leader, grabbed passports for herself and two boys, ages 7 and 11, packed a bag and left the morning after a friend told her that her ex-husband had a hit out on her life. (AP Photo/Julie Watson)
In his words, “We haven’t done anything that we should be ashamed of.”
Not everyone agrees. More than 100 organizations from Mexico, Central America, and the United States signed a letter this week denouncing some of Mexico’s immigration enforcement practices.
A Honduran migrant prepares tortillas and rice at the Pan de Vida shelter for migrants where she and her two daughters are living while waiting their turn to apply for asylum in the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday that Mexico’s government doesn’t agree with an “astonishing” U.S. Supreme Court order that would block migrants from countries other than Mexico and Canada from applying for asylum at U.S. borders. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
