Mexico and the US work on a refuge plan for migrants

The governments of Mexico and USA develop a refugee plan to emigrants in southern Mexico, according to authorities of the Aztec country.

Both administrations intend to prosecute Cuban migrants, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the south of Mexico to “avoid their sad transit to the United States,” the current Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, stated this Wednesday before the accredited press.

Although she did not detail this new plan, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs announced that the idea is to complement existing options for immigrants to enter the United States, such as a humanitarian visa program for these groups and a mobile application for asylum seekers called CBP. One.

He commented that his country intends to establish an "international space" with "multiple services" for migrants from those four countries who remained in Mexico after the COVID-era restrictions on the southern border of the United States ended last May.

He also highlighted that this week officials from Mexico and the US met to address migration and security issues.

In addition, he said, the idea was raised by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who proposed doing a program in southern Mexico “to avoid this sad transit to the United States.”

The Secretary of Foreign Affairs also commented that this proposal would cover asylum and employment issues, since Mexico is willing to explore safe and orderly pathways for migrants who are not eligible under current US rules.

Another Mexican official consulted by the agency Reuters On this same topic, he added that talks on this proposal are still ongoing with the US, but that the plan did not foresee the use of US facilities.

This Wednesday, US media reported that dozens of migrants are already camping in the border areas of Chiapas with Guatemala.

“About 1,500 migrants have been camping for days in Suchiate, Chiapas. The authorities keep them there with the promise that they will provide them with buses to continue their journey to the Mexican border with the United States," he noted in Twitter the Voice of America.

This Thursday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that more than 38,000 Cubans received approval to travel to the United States since the beginning humanitarian parole program last January.

Of that number of cases reviewed and approved, more than 35,000 Cubans have managed to reach US territory.

After completing the first semester of implementation of this initiative of the Biden Administration to stop the irregular migratory flow, until the end of June, DHS data revealed that almost 160,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have arrived legally on humanitarian parole to the United States.

The approval of the travel permit does not imply the automatic delivery of the parole upon appearing before the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities, who have the power to grant entry to the country.

“The Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to expanding legal avenues as an alternative to irregular migration has yielded positive results,” said a statement.

For its part, the situation of returns to Mexican territory could vary if the agreement becomes firm. ruling by a federal judge, which this week reversed the asylum policy and border control of the Biden administration, a decision that has already been appealed by the Department of Justice and will probably escalate to other judicial instances before its confirmation.

According to the DHS, Cubans and Haitians who have been intercepted at sea after April 27, 2023 will not be eligible to apply for parole, although this program is also in litigation in a federal court in Texas, after a lawsuit from 20 red states to delete it. The case will go to trial on August 24 and a verdict is expected by the end of the year.