Immigration: Mexico's Double Standard
The talk of immigration for some U.S. politicians might not be a hot button issue, but perhaps no one can ignore the facts of who it is affecting.
Mexico is perhaps one of those countries caught in a double standard as it relates to immigration: on one hand, Mexico is demanding that the U.S. do something to help them, but on the flip side they cannot do anything to help their own growing immigration problems.
At the moment, Mexico is forcing the U.S. to give rights to Mexican immigrants that have fled across the American frontiers. However, the rights that Mexico is asking for from the U.S. are exactly the ones they cannot provide for the Central American immigrants based in Mexico.
President Barack Obama has called the deluge of unaccompanied minors an "urgent humanitarian situation." And in late July, Obama had meetings with the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to discuss this urgency. But it is Mexico who is geographically, strategically and politically the country in the middle of it, and the one with the most influence.
This is Mexico's immigration security situation: it currently has a network of highway borders and checkpoints to evaluate travelers, as well as huge detention centers to hold illegal migrants. The country also has tens-of-thousands of federal police officers and immigration agents that can arrest and deport illegal migrants, The Washington Post reported.
The flaw, however, lies in the size of Mexico's railway corridors, highways and border areas. These particular areas are actually controlled by a cartel of gangsters who have grasped that they can make profits from human trafficking, The Washington Post reported. This flaw of uncontrollable size and management by criminal gangs directly affects Mexico's law enforcement, and the smuggling from Central America through Mexico to the U.S.
The "Coyote" guides who deal in smuggling now charge $7,000 USD for the trip from Central America. This amount of money extends itself to paying alleged bribes to Mexican police and immigration agents at the checkpoints. The going rate is usually 500 pesos or $40.00 USD per head, The Washington Post reported.
Some analysts and experts agree that Mexico's own immigration policing is not only flawed but a hypocrisy. The El Diario NY reported this week that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had so far criticized Mexico's immigration situation. In the IACHR's report, they stated that the "Mexican State's response has been patently inadequate in terms of preventing, protecting, prosecuting, punishing, and redressing crimes and human rights violations committed against migrant persons."
The migrants who are fleeing and crossing Mexico have to face the aforementioned gangs and criminal activity. And those migrants also have to face reported abuse from that country's immigration agents and authorities, El Diario NY reported. The IACHR report also adds that those migrants who are detained have a small chance of being discharged. Neither migrant adults nor children are given any special treatment.
At the heart of Mexico's lack of immigration regulation is its inadequate legislation. The IACHR's report says that Mexico has not done much to legally stem their immigration situation. For example, those undocumented migrants, who have attempted to regularize their own citizenship and for their Mexican-born children in becoming Mexican citizens, have been refused to register, El Diario NY reported.
In order for Mexico to succeed in its own immigration reform the IACHR and some analysts agree that Mexico needs to be more committed. Mexico's commitment lays in tougher immigration enforcement and less corruption. If that happened this could help the U.S. to stem Central Americans from rushing the border, The Washington Post reported.
Mexico might indeed be doing something. It has been reported that Mexico deported 60,000 Central Americans as of mid-July; this included 12,400 minors. Last year, Mexico deported almost 90,000 Central Americans, out of which 9,600 were minors, The Washington Post reported.
But what about the freight trains? These are the most vulnerable areas and means of transport that tens-of-thousands of migrants use who cannot afford to pay the thousands of dollars. Those freight trains are known as "The Beast."
"Why hasn't Mexico taken care of the trains issue? It's the most well-known and well-documented aspect of this whole tragedy," Eric Olson said, an expert on security and migration at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
Mexico and the U.S. have a complex relationship when it comes to immigration. Mexico in the past had called itself a champion for immigration rights, this had occurred when its citizens fled to the U.S. illegally and had complained about abuse by the U.S. border protection agents, The Washington Post reported.
Now, migrants who are fleeing their country have been robbed, raped, and some even killed by those who are sometimes working with immigration authorities and by gangs.
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