Mexico’s Own Migration Woes

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Today’s NYTimes has a story by Ginger Thompson documenting Mexico’s own migration woes, both because of an inflow of Central Americans through its southern border and because of migrants who travel by sea from places like Cuba and China. Thompson writes:

“The Mexican authorities report that detentions and deportations have risen in the past four years by an estimated 74 percent, to 240,000, nearly half along the southern border. But they acknowledged there had also been a boom in immigrant smuggling and increased incidents of abuses and attacks by corrupt law enforcement officials, vigilantes and bandits. Meanwhile, the waves of migrants continue to grow.”

The link is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/world/americas/18mexico.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

As Mexico increases its capacity for detention and deportation, it will be increasingly important to monitor the human rights situation for migrants in Mexico. Problems have already been flagged by immigrants’ rights groups and human rights organizations. As in the US, violations are likely to spread as the volume of detentions and deportations grows.

-jmc