The last meetings between the United States and Mexico, in the middle of the Christmas break, to discuss the thorny issue of migration are beginning to serve some gestures. Mexico eases the flow towards the northern border by dissolving the caravan of thousands of migrants that left Chiapas on December 24. The Government has now promised them a document that allows them legal stay in the country and has put them on buses to shelters on the border with Guatemala. Families and vulnerable groups with priority. But there has been no talk of humanitarian visas, as has happened on other occasions. The United States responds with news that contributes to calm on the Mexican side: the Biden Administration has urgently requested the Supreme Court that its federal agents can cut the barbed wire that the Republican governor of Texas ordered to be laid to prevent the entry of foreigners . And the news most celebrated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to do with the imminent opening of four border posts in California, Arizona and Texas. Goods will once again circulate along the great border between the United States and Mexico, an economic concern that was also addressed in recent meetings between diplomatic delegations.
The continuous and increasingly large exoduses of foreigners represent one of the greatest tensions between Mexico and the United States, which, on the other hand, maintain an enormous commercial flow between their borders. The issue also heats up domestic politics between Republicans and Democrats months before the elections. Forced by this, the Biden Administration had asked the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador for greater efforts in containing migrants and the matter led to calls and diplomatic meetings that these days have their correlation in political actions. Irregular migration at the border has increased arrests by 35%, now crossings are numbering in the tens of thousands a week. The crisis needed, if not effective solutions, then some political gestures, especially during electoral times.
If political disagreements toughen anti-migration measures, the agreements are also confusing for foreigners, who sometimes do not know what to expect. That has been the case with the promise of documents for the migrant caravan that walked from Chiapas to the north in recent days. Some have chosen to accept those unspecified documents offered by the López Obrador Government and have boarded the buses on the way to the shelters, confident of a legal stay in Mexico. Others have rejected the offer and will continue on foot, enduring the inclemencies and extortions that punctuate the journey.
Four days ago, 30 migrants disappeared while traveling on a bus in Tamaulipas, one of the most dangerous states in Mexico, where foreigners are kidnapped by organized crime to serve their cause or released after receiving money in exchange. It has already been found with them. The Government assured that it was an “atypical” uprising due to the large number of people, but it is not the first time this has happened. Contingents superior in number occurred on other occasions with a fatal end.
Political difficulties are also occurring in the interior of the United States, where the federal government and the state of Texas, governed by the controversial Republican Greg Abbott, are immersed in legal disputes to determine who is responsible for laying barbed wire or removing it. Abbott has spent more than $11 million on 70,000 rolls of concertinas. After several rulings and appeals, it is now the Supreme Court that must decide on the issue.
When migration crises worsen, however, walls and spikes take a backseat. The United States then closes the customs crossings through which millions of dollars in merchandise cross every day and forces more intense negotiations. The trains are not only loaded inside, thousands of migrants climb on them to pass from one side to the other, which has in turn caused the railway to be cut off by private companies in Mexico itself, where the news spoke of This and the terrible accidents, some fatal, that shocked public opinion. The economy is usually negotiated quickly to avoid the million-dollar losses that shake employers and this has been the case in recent days.
The last meeting, held on December 27, resulted in the agreement to “intensify efforts to disrupt human trafficking, trafficking and criminal networks, and continue working to promote legal human mobility pathways.” The United States agreed to open the doors to the merchandise and deal with the problem in the countries of origin, where they complain about the American blockades on their economies as one of the causes of the “unprecedented” human exodus that is being experienced at this time. It is not the only one, political and freedom reasons are also an incentive to seek exile, as is the case of Nicaragua, Cuba or Venezuela, among others. In response to this, Mexico will probably see some actions from now on aimed at stopping the transfer of migrants on their way to the United States in one way or another.
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