Mexico Faces Illegal Immigration Crisis Along Its Southern Border

Josue Serrano, a Mexican deported illegal immigrant, hangs wooden crosses on the border fence as part of a vigil for illegal immigrants who died while migrating to the United States, at the U.S.–Mexico border in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on July 4, 2022. Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images

Mexico shares a problem with the United States as it deals with an illegal immigration crisis along its southern border with Guatemala.

Thousands of immigrants continue to make the dangerous journey through Guatemalan jungles and cross illegally into Mexico, often using coyotes, also known as human smugglers, to make the trek.

“I come from a low-income family; they pushed me more than all of them to want to [move ahead] and give them a little of what we never had,” Frank Honduras, a Guatemalan who crossed illegally into Mexico and was subsequently arrested and deported, told The Epoch Times.

“My mom was a single mom, and we suffered a lot. She and my brothers and other family pushed me to go elsewhere.”

Honduras used a coyote to enter Mexico illegally but was ultimately stopped at an immigration checkpoint on his way to Mexico City, where he was taken to a detention center.

“I just wanted a better life,” he said.

It’s not only Guatemalans and Hondurans who are making the trek across Mexico’s southern border illegally, but there are also El Salvadorans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, and those who come from several countries overseas, including China.

The Unit for Migration Policy, Registration and Identity of Persons (UPMRIP) with the Interior Ministry of Mexico estimates that between January and February, 70,526 illegal immigrants in Mexico were apprehended, 54.6 percent more than in 2022; of the total apprehended, 66.6 percent were men and 33.4 percent women.

The majority of illegal immigrants were found in the Mexican border states of Chiapas (41.3 percent), Tabasco (9.3 percent), and Coahuila (8.8 percent).

Much of the recent increase in illegal immigration across Mexico’s southern border has been attributed to the impending end of Title 42 in the United States. The public health authority allows Border Patrol agents to expel illegal immigrants to their home country or the country they were last in, which is often Mexico. Title 42 is set to expire on May 11.

“We have noticed an increase in people after the last decree of the United States; there is a lot of misinformation from social networks (but this increase) is remarkable,” Fredy Castillo of the Haitian Bridge Alliance told the Spanish news organization EFE.

Castillo works in Tapachula, Chiapas, a Mexican city next to the Guatemalan border. He says his charity organization, which provides food to illegal immigrants, has encountered many “diverse nationalities” who say that “they will seek to transit irregularly through the Latin American country [Mexico] until they reach the northern border and attempt to challenge the new U.S. immigration program.”

Mexicans React to Illegal Immigration Crisis

The influx of illegal immigrants into Mexico has been met with mixed emotions from many Mexicans who say they are taking advantage of the system and worsening economic conditions in their country.

“I hate them,” Brayan Ortiz of Mexico City told The Epoch Times. “For me, every person willing to migrate to get a better life is completely valid. But since Mexico is one of the countries with the most immigration traffic, it generates a lot of problems.”

Ortiz says many of the illegal immigrants have been physically aggressive and even robbed Mexicans.

“The problem here is that Mexico does not have enough control on the southern border, so they enter without mercy. There have been cases of crowds forcing their way through the southern border, destroying everything in their path,” he said.

Several large caravans, filled with thousands of migrants and illegal immigrants, have pushed their way through Mexico’s southern border in the past and made their way across the country with the hope of making it into the United States. A caravan in 2022 was filled with as many as 6,000 people, according to Reuters, which states that there have been similarly large caravans in 2018 and 2019.

The caravans typically take place during the spring or summer months, and with the end of Title 42 potentially coming on May 11, there is the possibility of an even greater caravan passing through Mexico.

“It worries me,” Fernando Martinez of Mexico City told the Epoch Times. “You can’t do much; it all depends on the police and federal authorities.”

Meanwhile, others believe that illegal immigrants coming into Mexico, even a tide of them, should be welcomed and helped.

“I think immigration is not a problem. They are just people with issues in their countries trying to find the best thing in general like good jobs, better education, which in some cases for me isn’t a problem,” Haziel Anastacio of Guadalajara told The Epoch Times.

Proposed US Legislation

Since the end of Title 42 has been widely viewed as a lure for illegal immigrants from Central America and other countries to cross the southern border of Mexico and make their journey across the country to get into the United States, there has been a proposal for new immigration restrictions to take its place.

The Biden administration has proposed a “transit ban” rule, which would make gaining asylum in the United States more difficult or even impossible for illegal immigrants if they did not first seek asylum in another country.

In a rare rebuke from the left, Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates have blasted the White House over the proposal.

‘The proposed asylum ban is illegal and would cause countless asylum seekers immense, avoidable suffering,” said Katrina Eiland, managing attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The Biden administration knows this, and if they proceed as proposed, they are choosing to ignore U.S. asylum laws and will face swift legal challenges.”

The White House, meanwhile, denies the accusation that the new law will cause undue suffering.

“We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws. We are strengthening the availability of legal, orderly pathways for migrants to come to the United States, at the same time proposing new consequences on those who fail to use processes made available to them by the United States and its regional partners,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.