EFE.- Irregular migration through Mexico rose 193% year-on-year in the first half of the year, according to government data, a phenomenon that is expected to worsen in the face of electoral uncertainty in the United States, activists on the southern border warned on Wednesday.
Mexican authorities reported 712,226 “people in an irregular immigration situation” between January and June 2024, almost triple the 242,928 in the same period in 2023, according to statistics from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).
In just six months, the irregular migration reported by the Mexican government almost reached the record of 782,176 migrants that it detected in all of 2023, when this flow rose 77% annually.
The main country of origin of migrants is Venezuela, with 200,289 registered, which implies an increase of 215% and more than one in four of the total irregular migration in 2024, 29%.
They are followed by Ecuador (73,615), Honduras (60,260), Guatemala (56,938), Colombia (44,094), El Salvador (41,679), Nicaragua (36,405), Haiti (30,476) and Cuba (24,151).
Pressure in the United States
The rise in migration in Mexico contrasts with the drop in arrests at the border with the United States, where detentions of undocumented immigrants fell 73% from the peak in December to the 3,415 reported on July 30, according to Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena last Friday.
Washington’s pressure on Mexico has grown ahead of the November presidential elections in the United States, where migration and the common border have been a key issue.
But migration has not stopped at the border between Mexico and Central America, and residents feel overwhelmed, said Denis Olivera Aguirre, secretary general of the Association for the Development of Markets in Tapachula, the main border city.
“Here, the southern border has witnessed how national sovereignty has been violated, in the sense that thousands of people from other countries have passed through Tapachula, migrants, children, entire families, pregnant women, and we have seen how this migratory flow has grown,” he told EFE.
The Mexican journey before the American dream
The flow of people is increasing despite the growing dangers faced by migrants in Chiapas, a state on Mexico’s southern border that is plagued by a dispute between organized crime to control drug and human trafficking.
“There are too many risks we face, heat strokes, illnesses, people being beaten, and the most dangerous thing is the situation in the country, kidnappings, yes there are kidnappings. (We are) a little scared, I arrived here with my three children,” Honduran Carlos Rivera told EFE.
Other migrants are debating whether to stay in the United States or stay in Mexico, where the government has promised refuge for those who want to work in the country, particularly in the south.
“Things are bad in the world and one always looks for where things are better or not. I would settle in Mexico, my goal is not Mexico, but I feel safe,” said a citizen of the Dominican Republic who omitted his name for fear of immigration authorities.
Mexican activist Luis Rey García Villagrán, from the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), who often accompanies migrants on the southern border, considered the work of the National Migration Institute (INM) and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) to be insufficient.
He also warned of a persistent increase in migration in the face of crises in other countries, such as the political crisis in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro claims he won re-election despite accusations of fraud by the opposition.
“There is persecution in Venezuela, problems continue in Cuba, conflicts continue in Africa that are causing many comrades to flee, in Haiti the problems do not cease and, therefore, migration has increased,” he said in an interview.
