Mexico stops issuing travel documents, adding to US immigration chaos

News

by Matthew Sedaka

May 12, 2023 | 7:27 p.m

Mexico cracked down on granting travel permits to immigrants on Friday, blocking their ability to legally head across the country to the border with the United States, a day after Title 42 expired.

National Immigration Institute [INM] It ordered its offices across the country to stop issuing multiple immigration forms, which are temporary passes that allow people to legally pass through the country.

“[The INM]… I have ordered all immigration offices in all states not to issue multiple immigration forms, or any other document permitting cross-country passage,” according to the fact sheet. joint conference By Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In Tapachula, less than 30 minutes from the Guatemalan border in the south of the country, the INIA was Create a mobile office At the Ecological Park, where earlier this week The Post filmed thousands of migrants turning themselves in to receive travel permits.

Officials have reportedly given tens of thousands of temporary permits to migrants coming into the country to allow them to traverse the country legally for 45 days.

But with Title 42 expired, officials locked and dismantled the office by Thursday night. The park’s INM official attributed the move to the need to clean and maintain the park.

Shelter managers told The Post this week that the government’s handover of permits, which has occurred over the past few weeks, has had a significant impact on the length and number of migrants staying in their city, as they moved quickly.

“certainly [because of] Seal,” said Humberto Bermudez, director of the Jesus the Righteous Sanctuary, referring to the temporary permits.

Bermudez Saadi in his shelter The number of migrants sleeping in his beds has fallen from 1,700 less than a month ago to just 500 this week.

“[If] Officials give the seal freely and quickly, people do not stay in the shelter for a long time. They are free to go.

However, when hundreds of migrants returned to the park on Friday, many panicked told The Post that they were confused about whether they would be able to obtain documents and continue their journey to the United States.

“If we don’t have the permit, we will [get] “Immigration arrested him again,” said Huang Qing, who traveled to Mexico from China’s Hubei Province.

Some of the immigrants hoped that four white tour buses parked in front of the park would take them to another city, where they might get the necessary documents. Tuxtla [Gutierrez] “He’s got a 20-day pass,” said Ronald Camargo, 41.

Camargo, who just arrived in Tapachula yesterday from Venezuela, admitted he was worried about how he would continue his journey with Title 42 over.

But thanks to the news from his friend, he said, “I still have hope that I’ll make sense of it.”

They are currently overwhelmed with migrants, officials in northern Mexico said, with 26,560 in shelters around the US-Mexico border on May 11, according to a fact sheet from Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard.

A nonprofit official told The Post that in Tuxtla, immigration officials provide 20-day forms to “leave the country.”

“Normally they should leave from the nearest border,” they said, but immigrants use it instead to “continue north.”

Giovanni Liberi, UNHCR’s representative in Mexico, criticized the government’s decision to stop granting temporary permits as short-sighted.

One of the monuments at Mexico’s end [Title 42] The pressure is already overwhelming [Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid] at risk of collapse.” Promoting access to asylum must go hand in hand with alternatives to migration.

Confusion over whether migrants will eventually be able to obtain temporary permits does not deter migrants like Cruz Peraza, 36, a coffee farmer from Venezuela.

Peraza, who was traveling with 14 others from his home country, said they had already invested money and personal trauma in their trip to the United States, including being mugged by Guatemalan policemen and groping their female companions by officers.

“Even if I have to ride a donkey, whatever chance I have of reaching the northern border, I will do everything I can,” Peraza said. “We don’t have a plan but we do have good intentions to act.”

On Wednesday, INM He said it was paused operations at 33 of its immigration detention centers while the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) conducts an investigation into the conditions of the facilities.

The investigation came more than a month after a massive fire ripped through a detention center in Ciudad Juarez, killing 40 people and injuring many others.

The centers, which can hold more than 1,300 individuals, will remain closed until the National Council for Human Rights finishes inspecting the sites and issues a report on its findings.