Since mid-September, United States and Mexican authorities have removed thousands of mostly Haitian migrants and asylum seekers from makeshift camps in Del Rio, Texas and Ciudad Acuña, across the border in the Mexican state of Coahuila.
How "voluntary" are Mexico's 'humanitarian return flights'?
Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented how Mexican immigration agents often pressure migrants into signing papers to be “voluntarily” returned to their countries, even when they are fleeing violence or persecution.
Por:
José Miguel Vivanco
Haitian migrants cross the Rio Grande river to get food and water in Mexico, after another crossing point was closed near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021.
Imagen Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. has expelled nearly 6,500 people to Haiti without allowing them to seek asylum.
Now, Mexican immigration authorities have announced the start of “humanitarian return flights” for any Haitians who “voluntarily wish to return to their country.” There is strong reason to doubt these returns will be either voluntary or humanitarian.
As my mom worked and parented, all in one breath, she instilled in us the values that I carry with me today: “por la familia, todo.” Lee este contenido en <a href="https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000147-f3a5-d4ea-a95f-fbb7f52b0000","_type":"ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20"},"cms.content.publishDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.content.updateDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b60000","_type":"ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a"},"linkText":"español","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b10000","_type":"809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288"}">español</a>.
"What a sad reflection that the Republican Party has moved from Abraham Lincoln, who <a href="https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1h4-6RbvpglrZVIbOjgpuE" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">said </a>immigration was a ‘source of national wealth and strength’ and Ronald Reagan, who <a href="https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw3smYQcjpnK2Yg75NSEOBUf" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">called </a>for his ‘city on the hill’ to be ‘open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here,’ to Donald Trump, who <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1u4LrDvU2tKeNxJCdbz96i" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">says </a>immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country".
"Our current immigration laws include so many hurdles that can keep families in limbo, and even being married to a U.S. citizen isn’t always enough to allow someone to get a green card".
"For those of us whose livelihoods depend on it, President Biden’s actions to protect and preserve DACA show a striking contrast with those of Trump and MAGA Republicans. Trump has a record of trying to end DACA and will try again if he wins another term".
"While immigrants by now are accustomed to being the tip of the spear in the GOP’s arsenal of attacks, let's be clear-eyed that the threat now is beyond harming immigrant communities or calling attention to the border. This is about using this issue as a tool to further Trump’s political ambitions, even if that means suppressing the right to vote, undermining our election results, or stoking more political violence".
"This month comes at a special moment in our nation’s history. For the first time, we have more Latinos serving in Congress than ever before. In the Senate, the Democratic Majority has confirmed a historic number of Latino judicial nominees and recently confirmed the first Latina to serve on the Federal Reserve in the Board’s 109-year history".
"This is the clean energy boom unleashed by President Biden: good-paying jobs in a fast-growing industry and lower bills for working families — all while addressing the climate crisis affecting our lives".
Putting presidents, former presidents and coup plotters on trial is an honorable and necessary practice to maintain a healthy democracy. Failure to put on trial presidents or former presidents who broke the law or committed crimes has had devastating consequences in Latin America.
Mexico's migrant policy bears responsibility for the deaths of 39 migrants in the fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juarez. They were in the custody of the Mexican government, in a federal facility.
Haiti is in the midst of a series of political, humanitarian, and security crises that have left the government unable to meet the basic needs of its people. These include the assassination of the president in July and a major earthquake in August.
Hundreds of human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, recently called on the U.S. government to halt deportations to Haiti given the crises there. And the heads of Mexico’s own asylum authority and the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have both insisted that Mexico should not return Haitians to Haiti for the same reason.
Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented how Mexican immigration agents often pressure migrants and asylum seekers into signing papers to be “voluntarily” returned to their countries, even when they are fleeing violence or persecution and require international protection.
In fact, Mexican immigration officials have openly admitted to Human Rights Watch that they call nearly all deportations that are not ordered by a court “assisted returns,” regardless of whether they are voluntary. Of the more than 54,000 migrants Mexico deported between January and July of this year, around 53,000 of them were classified as having undergone “assisted returns” by the Mexican government.
Mexico’s immigration system is replete with such euphemisms. Migrants are not apprehended, but “rescued.” They are not detained, but “presented.” And they are not held in detention centers, but “migratory stations.” It is easy to see how deportations become “humanitarian return flights.” It’s important to remember they are not.
President López Obrador has boasted that he leads a “humanist government.” He regularly praises Mexican migrants forced to leave their homes and travel to the United States. His failure to protect the lives and rights of migrants in Mexico is shameful, hypocritical, and anything but humanitarian.
This article originally appeared in Spanish in the newspaper Reforma. The author is the director of the Human Rights Watch Americas division.
Relacionados: