Chris Lange, FISM News
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Mexico is flying migrants south away from the U.S. border and busing new arrivals away from its border with Guatemala in “voluntary humanitarian transfers” to relieve pressure on its overcrowded border cities as migrants continue making their way toward the U.S. southern border.
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that busloads of hundreds of migrants were being transported more than 200 miles north from Tapachula near Guatemala to alleviate overcrowded shelters. Late Friday evening, the Mexican government began offering flights to foreign nationals who had camped out in Mexico City, most of whom were Haiti nationals. The government has also said it deployed hundreds of additional National Guard troops to the south last week.
Segismundo Doguín, Mexico’s top immigration official in the border state of Tamaulipas across from Texas, announced last week that the government would fly as many migrants away from Matamoros and Reynosa as possible.
The AP noted in its reporting that the massive relocation endeavor likely included “at least some of the 1,100 migrants” from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela that the U.S. returned to Mexico in the week after May 11, when the Biden administration ended a Trump-era migrant expulsion health policy imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
‘AN EQUILIBRIUM THAT CAN’T HOLD FOR VERY LONG’
“So the northern part of the migrant route is emptied out a bit, but the southern and middle parts remain extremely full and filling up all the time,” Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight and member of the WOLA D.C.-based human rights organization, said recently. “Obviously, that’s an equilibrium that can’t hold for very long,” he added.
Tens of thousands of foreign nationals poured into the U.S. daily in the week leading up to the Title 42 expiration, appearing to confirm fears of a migrant surge that even President Biden predicted would be “chaotic.” More than 6.3 million migrants have entered the country since President Biden took office in 2021, according to a Town Hall report.
CBP REPORTS DECREASE IN BORDER ENCOUNTERS SINCE MAY 11
U.S. Customs and Border Protection COO Blas Nuñez-Neto said on Wednesday that U.S. Border Patrol agents reported around 4,400 migrant encounters since May 11, the date Title 42 expired, with people crossing between ports of entry.
He said that the number had dropped to fewer than 4,000 migrant apprehensions in the two days prior, The Hill reported.
“We attribute the reduction in encounters at our border both to the consequences that we have strengthened and put in place for unlawful entry, and the lawful pathways that we have expanded, but also to the actions of our foreign partners,” Nuñez Neto told reporters in a telephone briefing.
The Biden administration announced stepped-up border security measures ahead of the policy’s end, including increased cooperation with Mexico, a rule that migrants would be deemed ineligible for asylum in the U.S. without first claiming asylum in a prior country, and harsher punishments under the existing Title 8 border authority.
The administration stopped short of claiming that an expected post-Title 42 surges had been averted.
“We are encouraged by this progress, but it is too soon to draw any definitive conclusions about or predict trends,” DHS said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The underlying conditions prompting historic migration in the Western Hemisphere remain, and smugglers will continue to spread disinformation to entice migrants to make the dangerous journey,” it added.
The Biden administration has been sharply criticized for its mixed messaging on the border crisis. At the same time that it implemented the tighter restrictions, the administration significantly expanded legal migration pathways that included establishing migrant processing centers in Latin America and announced a massive humanitarian parole initiative to allow up to 30,000 migrants from four different countries to enter the country legally each month.