Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Mexican government to reject harsh new restrictions on asylum seekers, currently under consideration by the United States Congress and President Joe Biden.
In a letter addressed to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena Ibarra on Jan. 18, the international human rights NGO said that Mexico should publicly declare that it will not agree to any measures that would lead to an increase in summary expulsions of migrants to Mexico.
“The proposals being considered in the United States could have devastating consequences for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers if implemented, undermining the right to seek asylum and exposing thousands of people to serious danger,” the letter said.
The proposed measures include allowing U.S. immigration officials to expel asylum seekers without hearing their claims; restricting the humanitarian programs that allow Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migrants to apply to travel legally to the U.S.; and instating a permanent “transit ban,” requiring refugees to seek asylum in any transit country they pass through before being eligible to apply in the U.S.
The measures are being pushed by Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress, some of whom are conditioning their support for US $100 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel on inclusion of the immigration restrictions in the 2024 U.S. federal budget.
HRW argues that the proposals contravene international human rights standards and effectively reinstate the controversial Title 42 border expulsions policy, which ended last May. They would also establish a de facto “safe third country” agreement between the U.S. and Mexico —something Mexico has repeatedly said it will not accept.
The NGO stressed that the erosion of U.S. asylum provisions that started with the 2019 “Remain in Mexico” policy has left thousands of expelled migrants vulnerable to “kidnapping, extortion, assault, and other serious abuses at the hands of criminal groups and corrupt officials” in Mexico.
The letter was published on the same day that members of Mexico’s security cabinet traveled to Washington to discuss bilateral cooperation on various issues, including migration. The meeting follows up on the agenda set during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Mexico last December, when the two countries agreed to establish a bilateral group to tackle mutual security concerns such as migration and drug trafficking.
“Mexico’s president should make it clear that he does not intend to be complicit in this attempt by U.S. congressmen to tear apart the U.S. asylum system,” said HRW Americas Director Juanita Goebertus. “These proposals would violate basic rights and further empower the criminal groups in Mexico that profit from kidnapping and extorting vulnerable migrants.”
With reports from Excelsior
Excellent advice from HRW Americas Director Juanita Goebertus. By publicly announcing the rejection of measure that are against human rights, the Mexican Government is post a strong position. Now we if we could see this along with public refusal to introduce additional GMO products especially seeds that would be a huge success
I strongly support sending all Frankenstein Corn to Texas.
I have long been a lawyer but have done very little with immigration law except in Courts and most quite awhile in the past. I am marrying a Mexican national and looking at the Byzantine hurdles to having her cross the border. I look at people who cross into México which I consider to be a country not generating many asylum candidates and wanting to cross illegally here. Well, I say show the USA that you are serious and apply in the first suitable country, esp. México or face a bar to entry unless/until you prove entitlement to asylum which entitlement I think should consider alternate countries not just the deplorable conditions in the country from which the person has fled. Put your child at risk of serious bodily injury, e.g., drowning in a Texas river, then you create a grounds for bar/expulsion. Create a prima facie test of eligibility which if failed results in a bar to entry unless/until you prove entitlement to asylum which entitlement I think should consider alternate countries not just the deplorable conditions in the country from which the person has fled. THEN, expand legal immigration from the Americas (populated by Spaniards and Portuguese for hundreds of hears and by indigenous for many thousands of years), NOT Asia, etc., and encourage those with skills needed to work here and continue to live in México. And, lastly, stop importing techies from India and the like to undercut Americans (including Latin Americans).
PS: And fix the dysfunction in border crossings. I spent 78 minutes in line crossing at la Garita de Otay into Tijuana starting just after 7 PM this Wed. evening which is the fault of the so-called government of México and often spend 1-2 hours crossing back into the U.S.A. at the same location with most gates closed.
“Well, I say show the USA that you are serious and apply in the first suitable country”
In Mexico they’ve got no money, no Internet, no phone, no email, no home, no mailing address, no transportation, no desk/pen/paper let alone a way to fill out pdf’s or follow online procedures to book appointments, read instructions etc. They can’t take a shower, groom, and put on a nice outfit to go to talk to the State Department even if they do cross all the hurdles to get to that point.
And those appointments take over a year to get. As you say, you’re doing this with your wife at the moment so you should know what this process is like. Your advice is to do all that your wife is doing while homeless in a migrant camp for a year.
If the migrants stay home, the place they are from is a human rights nightmare or the economic conditions are such that they literally can’t feed your family–or both.
These people give every last cent they have to narcos to risk their lives and being kidnapped to ride in a dark and suffocating shipping container or trailer with 75 other people, or if they’re lucky they get to walk solo across the border/desert while carrying 10 kilos of drugs and a bottle of water, with no map or shelter or hiking gear, and if they survive that they are just going to get arrested and thrown in a concentration camp.
And that’s just what happens once they are in Mexico. Read about what it takes to even REACH Mexico or escape their own countries, such as through the Darien Gap.
And with all that your argument is that these people need to first demonstrate THAT THEY ARE SERIOUS?
If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with speaking from privilege, this is what it looks like.