Mexico’s Migration Issues

It has been frequently (and sometimes hysterically) noted during recent immigration debates that the U.S.-Mexico border provides a portal not only for Mexican migrants, but also for many migrants from around the world who pass through Mexico as a point of entry into the U.S. An op-ed in today’s Washington Post by freelance writer Michael Flynn has a headline suggesting it would fall into the “hysterical” category. Instead, the op-ed takes a more nuanced approach, choosing to highlight U.S. failures to cooperate with Mexico in tackling the migration issues.

Flynn writes: “By focusing its attention on hardening its own borders, the United States leaves Mexico to shoulder a burden not of its own making and does nothing to address the root causes of global migration, including poverty at home. And Mexico’s sometimes draconian attempts to shift that burden jeopardize the lives of those who seek to cross the country in search of a better future.” With respect to the latter statement, Flynn describes the harsh conditions under which migrants in Mexico are detained in the more than 50 migration detention centers across that country.

Flynn points out several ways in which the U.S. has made Mexico’s migration control tasks harder rather than easier in recent years. Most signifcantly, he asserts that the White House has basically abandoned a promise made during Bush’s first term that if “the Mexicans would shut down the migrant route through their country, the United States would improve the status of undocumented Mexicans in the United States.” Since political discussion around improving the plight of Mexicans in the U.S. have been languishing in favor of harsh anti-immigration measures, many in Mexico feel they have received nothing for their own efforts to comply with U.S. requests for greater Mexican border enforcement.

The full article is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/10/AR2005121000103.html

As discussions around U.S. border control efforts grow increasingly myopic, Flynn’s op-ed provides a reminder that the control of international migration requires international cooperation. But recent immigration discussions in Washington do not suggest this is a priority.

-jmc