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 Editorials | Issues | April 2008 
Mexico to Protect Deportees from Extortion by Police
 Mariana Martínez - La Prensa San Diego
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 |  | Immigrant rights activists say granting proper IDs to deported immigrants is one of most critical parts of the plan. |  | | | |
Food, water, shelter and work are basic human rights, but those are the very things Mexicans lose when they re-enter their own country after being deported by U.S. immigration authorities.
Among the hardship they face when being deported are families being split for deportation, failure to notify the proper Consulate, deportation of women and unaccompanied minors at odd hours of the night, deportation of non-Mexicans to Mexico and lack of food and water on the journey.
But the problem for immigrants does not stop after their deportation. In Mexico, they are often extorted by local police, robbed or exploited.
Oscar, a 45-year-old immigrant who declined to give his last name, was deported from Los Angeles a few days ago. As he was walking towards an immigrant shelter in Mexico, he was stopped by police.
“They asked me stuff like ‘Where are you going?’ and when I said, ‘To work,’ they changed it and kept asking, ‘Are you working by selling drugs?’”
“Everyday I hear of police extorting the immigrants at the shelter,” Oscar says, “beating them or searching them because we don’t have local IDs.”
Oscar, who had been working at a U.S. construction site, decided to use his savings to pay the “fine” a judge ordered in order to get out of detention. “I had chosen not to even buy food so I could save up to go to my hometown,” Oscar says sadly, “but I decided to pay the fine because I had been there for 12 hours and the cell was filthy.”
According to the Mexico National Immigration Institute (INAMI), 42 percent of all deportations from the United States to Mexico are carried out through Tijuana and Mexicali. This represents more than 200,000 deportations in 2007 and more than 60,000 in the first quarter of 2008.
An alarmingly high number of these deportations are of unaccompanied minors, according to INAMI´s regional director, Francisco Javier Reynoso Nuno. Reynoso says that 4, 219 minors without adult companions were deported though Tijuana in 2007, and 1,156 minors have been deported so far this year.
“The number of deported minors is astonishing, especially after the immigration raids in California,” says Reynoso. “That’s why we are getting ready, because we expect this year to set a new record in deportations.”
Despite international agreements stipulating that unaccompanied minors be deported only during the day and local authorities be notified, these agreements are often overlooked by U.S. immigration officials.
Tonathiu Guillén, director of regional think tank Colef, says the United States hasn’t changed its “lateral repatriation” policy: it continues to deport immigrants to places other than where they were arrested, sending them away from family networks.
“Mexico has been really insistent in the request for a deportation process that focuses on human rights, but unfortunately it has not been successful, especially in the case of women and unaccompanied minors,” says Guillén.
In a joint effort to help vulnerable immigrants return to their own country, non-profit organizations and all levels of the Mexican governments have launched a new pilot program to facilitate a more humane return.
The program launched this week in Tijuana, with the support of the local Child Services (DIF) shelter, guarantees immigrants food, shelter, temporary work and help getting in touch with their family.
Father Luiz Kendzierski, president of the Immigrant Support Committee and Immigrant House, says the pilot program represents an important change of public policy by the Mexican government.
“The important thing is to provide for the immigrants, asking, what are their needs? So the Mexican government is finally paying back some of what the immigrants provide to this nation,” says Kendzierski.
Immigrant rights activists say granting proper IDs to deported immigrants is one of most critical parts of the plan.
“Many times, the immigrants have been outside Mexico for too long and find themselves with no official ID when they return, making it hard to get hired and opening a window for corrupt authorities to try to extort them,” Kendzierski explains.
That’s why the plan they helped the government design includes steps to provide immigrants with an overall support network for them to get proper IDs, secure jobs and get back to their places of origin.
In the midst of terrifying experiences, such as the one Oscar has had with the Mexican police, Kendzierski considers this new program a ray of hope.
“We hope to see this pilot program expand through the Northern border by the end of the year,” he adds. |
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