In a joint deployment, the National Institute of Migration (INM), the National Guard and the Municipal Police of Tapachula intensified operations in various points of the city, with the aim of detaining migrants who are in national territory in an irregular situation.
In this context, a migrant who asked to remain anonymous, revealed the growing fear among those seeking to regularize their situation in Mexico and denounced that these operations have become a constant persecution.
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“We can no longer walk calmly in the street because suddenly they appear and ask you what paperwork you have. If you do not carry your documents, they take you directly to the Siglo 21 Station,” he said.
Uncertainty has led many migrants to avoid leaving their shelters or hostels, said another of the testimonies, even to carry out procedures with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) or to meet in public spaces such as Bicentennial Park, which was previously a meeting place for people in mobility.
“Many friends leave early to go to COMAR to start their procedure, but with fear of being detained on the way. Others prefer not to go out on the street for fear of the operation,” explained another migrant.
Luis García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), pointed out that in the case of people in transit of Central American, Caribbean and Venezuelan nationality, they are taken to immigration prisons in Guatemala and El Salvador, which is in violation of and is established in the first article of the Constitution of the United Mexican States and international treaties that Mexico should comply with for being part of the OAS and the UN.
“The persecution, detention and deportation of the National Institute of Migration, which has become a repressive entity of migrants, is already a fact. Anyone who does not have a document that allows them to have legal certainty, is detained, they are not given due process, let it be clear, there is no due process and in ipso facto, without the person having the right to asylum, refuge, they are deported,” said the human rights defender.
According to INM agents consulted by Diario del Sur, these types of operations are normal and were already being carried out periodically, before the arrival of Donald Trump.
They indicated that the detained people are sent to the Siglo XXI Station and from there deportations of Hondurans and Guatemalans are carried out, only, as well as those who voluntarily want to return to their country of origin.
Likewise, they mentioned that transfers by bus to different parts of the Mexican Republic continue, mostly to Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Other organizations that support migrants from the southern border have also pointed out that the operations generate more tension and hinder the mobility of those seeking legal documents to remain in the country, preventing them from continuing their journey to the northern border.
Another consequence of the tightening of immigration policies is the absence of migrants in the shops of Tapachula, because out of fear of being detained, they stopped going to supply centers since the weekend, places that have also reported a drop in sales.
Source: oem
