Nestor Jimenez
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, December 8, 2025, p. 8
This year (with figures from January-October), the National Migration Institute (INM) rejected entry into the country at the various national airports to 14,175 people from the nations that will play in the 2026 World Cup, or who are still looking for one of the last tickets in the reclassification.
The figure represents 70 percent of the total rejections in that period, according to reports from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.
In this context, Colombia – whose representative will have matches in both Mexico City and Guadalajara – remains the country from which the most people are denied entry, with the argument of inconsistencies in their documentation.
With this scenario, Mexico will have another challenge in migration management that it will have to face as one of the hosts of the World Cup of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
In total, during 2025 the INM has reported 19,992 “events of foreigners who were rejected” upon arrival at airports in Mexico, of which the reasons why they were prevented from entering the country are not detailed. Before boarding, travelers must present to airline employees and consular personnel that they have a passport and visa if requested.
In 2024, immigration authorities rejected entry to 100,049 foreigners who arrived in Mexico by air. Of that number, half were Colombians, a trend that continued this year, which has generated hundreds of complaints from citizens of that nation, which led its authorities to send more than fifty notes last year to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which they warned of multiple cases of “possible mistreatment” of their fellow citizens.
After that, last July, the head of the INM, Sergio Salomón Céspedes, reported a meeting with the Colombian ambassador in Mexico, to address issues on the bilateral agenda regarding the transit of Colombians in national territory.
Regarding the arrests and immigration processes initiated by the INM for those who did not verify their immigration status, this year, agents of this institute detained 37,483 people also coming from one of the countries that will play in the World Cup, which represents 26 percent of the arrests of foreigners who did not verify their immigration status.
