The Mexican Foreign Ministry resumed the data that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published on January 20, to prepare a report with which he proclaims the success of the policy of the Government of Joe Biden that allows the expulsion of the nationals of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. According to the document to which he had access The country This Friday, with this measure “the arrival of Cubans at the Mexican border was reduced by 97.5%” and the “flow of Haitians was close to zero.”
The report that bears the title United States Unilateral Measures Regarding the Implementation of Section 265 of Title 42 of the United States Code it will be delivered to the Senate, without specifying what day. It stresses that the new program has already approved the entry by air of 26,000 Venezuelans, 4,800 Cubans, 2,000 Haitians and 800 Nicaraguans. “The new access route to the US job market is already a reality,” he insists.
In early January, US President Joe Biden announced that his country was going to return nationals from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti to Mexico, expanding the use of a controversial rule called Title 42, inherited from former President Donald Trump (2017-2021). and that allows expelling migrants with the excuse of the pandemic.
At the same time, the Biden government announced the expansion of a program that allows the entry into the US of up to 30,000 people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti each month, thus expanding a plan that it had launched in October to grant paroles humanitarians to Venezuelans.
The former commissioner of the National Institute of Migration, Tonatiuh Guillén, recognized the number of applicants as “positive”, but warned that this modality ends up being a very selective process: “You have to have a sponsor, Internet capacity and conditions to understand the procedure. That in the end annuls the human right to asylum, because a lot of people are excluded by this system,” he explained.
In the report of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, problems such as the saturation that the CBP One application has presentedthe apps of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service through which migrants can apply for asylum. José Antonio Martínez, a Cuban who is in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, in northern Mexico, told 14ymedio that when trying to enter he could not do it because the system was saturated and on other occasions the application “marked an error” when trying to enter his data.
“There are many doubts because things are coming in English, that has us stranded,” said Martínez, who is still struggling to get an appointment for the month of March. “You can no longer try to cross because the US returns you and you can no longer apply for asylum.”
The document also does not address the case of the more than 3,000 Cubans who are stranded in Tapachula, Chiapas, a city on the border with Guatemala, public Radio and Television Martí. Usnavi Rodríguez, a native of Havana, denounced the Immigration authorities for preventing them from continuing the journey to the US border. “Immigration obstructs our passage. The safe-conduct they give you says it is to move, but they don’t let you get on a bus”.
For a week, Migration officials have implemented operations to control the irregular flow of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with the granting of documents, which only allow them to reach Arriaga, a municipality located about 247 kilometers from Tapachula.
In Tapachula’s Miguel Hidalgo central park, officers are detaining families and taking them in vans to the Siglo XXI immigration station, a center highlighted by activists for human rights violations, extortion and punishment. This site defines the legal status or deportation of the undocumented.
Migrants see our asylum system as a springboard, make savings, and apply for these special visas (offered by the US), said the head of Comar, Andrés Ramírez
“The Mexican government is doing the job of the United States,” he told 14ymedio the defender of migrants José Luis Pérez Jiménez. It is clear that “there are bilateral commitments to contain migrants and they have turned us into Border Patrol and that is not our function.”
Pérez Jiménez denounced that “if we take into account the Castro-Chavista policy of President López Obrador, there is an understanding between the Government of Mexico and Cuba and clandestine deportations of Cubans have recently taken place, despite the fact that they have suspensions granted by the district judges”.
The foreign ministry document also does not address that with the implementation of the new US program, there was an increase in requests to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar). Last January, 12,800 migrants went to this instance to avoid deportation.
“Migrants see our asylum system as a springboard, earn savings, and apply for these special visas (offered by the US). We have to ensure that people are protected, but also the asylum system itself, so as not to become in a kind of travel agency. We are on the brink of collapse,” he warned The country the head of the Comar, Andrés Ramírez.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
