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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Mexican Deportations of Central Americans Continue
 Frontera NorteSur
| | Guatemalan Attorney General for Human Rights Sergio Morales Alvarado said that ten percent of Guatemala's population has relocated to the United States in search of the "American Dream." |
Even as controversy broke out in Mexico about US immigration policy debates and the proposed construction of new border fences earlier this year, the Mexican government was busy increasing the deportation of Central Americans, especially Guatemalans. Cited by the Apro news service, figures from Guatemala's national migration institute reveal that 43,685 Guatemalans were deported from Mexico during the first 4 months of 2006. Almost 100,000 Guatemalans were deported from Mexico during all of 2005.
Increasingly, Central American immigrant advocacy groups are blasting the Mexican government for supposedly having a double standard. The activists contend that while Mexico City criticizes Washington for its alleged mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers, the Mexican government commits the same abuses against Central Americans.
"In recent years, Mexico has been the best student of the United States, putting into practice anti-immigrant strategies against Central Americans," charged Mauro Verzeletti, the director of the Guatemala-based Center for Attention to Migrants.
Most Central Americans detained by Mexican authorities are nabbed while in transit to the United States. Some Central Americans decide to remain in Mexico, where they can apply for an FM-3 work and residency visa. According to Patricia Ferrara, a Mexican National Migration Institute official charged with legalizing the status of migrants, about 50 people in Nuevo Laredo – mostly Hondurans – have acquired applications for FM-3 status since September 2005.
On the Texas border, Nuevo Laredo is considered one of the northern border's most popular "trampolines" into the United States. Ferrara added that only ten applications are under consideration. "We want more people to come in so they can benefit from the program," Ferrara insisted.
As if trapped in an endless rerun of the 1980's movie El Norte, Guatemalans and other Central American nationals passing through Mexico confront extortion, robbery, rape and other abuses at the hands of immigration officials, police, thieves, immigrant smugglers, and members of the so-called Mara street gangs.
A 2005 survey by the Regional Group of Migrant Human Rights Defender Organizations reported that more than one-third of 300 repatriated Central Americans interviewed for the study complained of bad conditions in Mexican jails. More than 128 of the interviewees complained that they were held in regular jails, while 132 deportees denounced food shortages during their incarceration. Grupo Beta, the special Mexican law enforcement unit charged with protecting migrants, has reported that the number of injured individuals it attended increased from 750 in 2004 to 1,530 in 2005. Alarmingly, Grupo Beta reported that the number of "mutilated" undocumented persons it assisted increased from 85 in 2004 to 96 in 2005.
In a recent, violent incident that only is exceptional for its casualty toll, armed robbers assaulted a group of 34 Central American nationals in southern Mexico's Chiapas state earlier this month, wounding 14 members of the group; 12 of the victims were shot.
Speaking at a recent seminar dedicated to migrant rights, Fabian Venet, the director of the migrant advocacy organization Without Borders, slammed the Mexican state and society for reacting too slowly to the violence. A bill to improve the situation of Central American migrants in the southern border region died in the Mexican Senate last December, Venet noted.
"There is no abandonment of the southern border, but there is a clear negligence in terms of an absence of clear policies that shouldn't be merely the responsibility of the federal and state governments but also of the municipal governments and citizenry," Venet said.
In addition to poverty, human rights advocates blame Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Hurricane Stan in 2005 for accelerating a migrant exodus from Central America. At a summit held in Guatemala last May, Guatemalan Attorney General for Human Rights Sergio Morales Alvarado said that ten percent of Guatemala's population has relocated to the United States in search of the "American Dream."
Morales estimated that about 60 percent of Guatemalans currently in the United States do not possess legal immigration documents.
According to a 2005 study by the International Organization for Migration, the Guatemalan population in the United States consisted of 1,364,000 persons. The study found that the vast majority of Guatemalan immigrants in the US send money back home, sustaining an economic flow to the tune of US$3.6 billion last year.
Sources: La Jornada/Notimex, August 15, 2006. Enlineadirecta.info, August 14, 2006. Article by Nora Morales Morales. Proceso/Apro, August 2, 2006 and August 14, 2006. Articles by Isain Mandujano and Velia Jaramillo.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Frontera NorteSur, is a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/ |
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