Mexico: 650 temporary safe-conducts distributed to migrants en route to the United States

Men and women, mostly from Central America and Venezuela, attend an assembly at a sports complex in Huixtla, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. AP - Marco Ugarte

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More than 650 migrants received a document on Wednesday authorizing their presence in Mexico for 30 days without fear of deportation, an official source said.

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Hundreds of illegal immigrants who entered Mexico with the aim of going to the United States began to receive documents on Wednesday legalizing their presence for thirty days on Mexican soil, without fear of being deported.

In Huixtla, a town in southern Mexico, tens of thousands of undocumented migrants from Central America are camping in a makeshift reception center while they wait for overwhelmed Mexican authorities to issue them temporary visas.

Huixtla is only on the first leg of their journey from

, on the border with Guatemala, where they left on Monday.

The “ 

” of several thousand migrants, mostly Venezuelans, many with families, continues its slow progress towards the United States, more than 3,000 km further north, as Los Angeles hosts the

with the issue of migration particularly on the agenda.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declined to attend due to organizers' decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The heads of state of Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras will also not be represented.

US President Joe Biden hopes to conclude at this summit a regional cooperation agreement on immigration, a major domestic political issue in the run-up to the mid-term elections.

► Listen again to the Journal of Haiti and the Americas:

A long-standing point of tension

According to Joe Biden, summit participants will make "

 " to both create " 

" and "

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced private sector commitments totaling $1.9 billion to support job creation in Central America and discourage outflows to the United States.

Because the “ 

” of migrants crossing Mexico have been subjects of tension with the United States since the time of American President Donald Trump (2017-2021).

In September 2021, images of 

 who tries to set foot on the American side after crossing the Rio Grande caused international outrage. 

Mounted U.S. border guards attempt to stop Haitian migrants from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, September 19, 2021. AFP - PAUL RATJE

Since then, the number of people seeking to enter the United States after fleeing poverty and violence in Central America and Haiti has been steadily rising for months, although " 

 ", a health measure introduced in the spring of 2020 in name of the fight against Covid-19, and on the basis of a law dating from the end of the 19th century, blocks migrants at the land borders of the United States. 

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• Mexico

• United States

• International Migrations

• Immigration