Migration flows in Central America: Mexico caught in a stranglehold

Migrants rescuing other migrants to get on a caravan, in Veracruz, Mexico, November 17, 2021 © AP

Text by: Gwendolina Duval

2 min

Between Mexico and the United States and throughout Central America, migratory flows are breaking all records in 2021. More than 1.7 million people have been arrested at the American border.

Mexico, despite being renowned for its openness, has strengthened its means of combating people in an illegal situation. 

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From our correspondent

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The latest data recently released by the Mexican authorities are final.

41,225 undocumented migrants were detained in September 2021 alone. This is an absolute record, the highest number since the registers were created twenty years ago.

To put things in perspective, it is almost as much as for the whole of 2011, ten years ago.

Even the trend of arrests of illegal migrants has been on the rise in Mexico for a long time and in recent months the pace has really intensified.

The United States and Mexico: a common goal

The hardening of Mexican migration policy is directly linked to the United States, which is putting the pressure on.

When we look at the figures, we can see that they start to soar in July, just after

.

She met the President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and the two governments agreed to make cooperation on the migration issue the top priority of the two countries.

Concretely, in return for a development program for Central America, Mexico is stepping up the fight against illegal migration and must prevent migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras from reaching the border of the United States. United.

► See also: Migrants in the United States: mass expulsions in Texas, Mexico City asks Washington for help

AMLO, forced to tighten its migration policy

This is not the first time that the visit of a member of the government has influenced migration policy in Mexico.

But President AMLO's speech has changed and in particular on these arrests, which he fully justifies, by saying that detentions and expulsions are for the good of migrants, that it is to take care of them.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador explains that it is too risky to allow migrants from Central America to go north.

Mexico uses its actions on the migration issue as a reversible strategy, a kind of bargaining chip to show itself well to its American neighbor, in a context where migratory pressure has never been so important on the whole continent.

► To listen: "The policy of the United States to manage the migratory crisis is to help the countries on the spot"

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• Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador