By EFE
Sep 23, 2024, 4:37 PM EDT
Mexico’s southern border is experiencing a new wave of migration, as Monday marks one month since the new US rule allowing asylum seekers to apply for an appointment using the ‘CBP One’ application from the Mexican border with Central America.
The phenomenon is noticeable in Tapachula, the largest city on the border, which has received thousands of foreigners since the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) decided on August 23 that migrants can request an audience with ‘CBP One’ from the Mexican states of Chiapas and Tabasco.
The Civil Protection delegate in Soconusco, Julissa Esther Briones, told EFE that there is a new wave of migrants who have arrived and are concentrated in different points of attention of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) and the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM).
“We see (the flow) every day. My colleagues report to me that 200 people (enter), but right now I see peaks of 500, 600 (migrants),” the official said.
The situation is also noticeable in migrant shelters, where migrants prefer to arrange appointments at the southern border of Mexico to avoid traveling across the country, as was the objective of the new measure by the United States, which has presidential elections in November, in which the vice president, Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and the former president of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, face each other.
“The Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter, which was registering 400 to 500 people, now has 1,040. The number of people admitted is increasing in the context of mobility, as the ‘CBP One’ application has already been enabled, where about 200 people registered and another 200 who are not registered enter (daily),” Briones described.
Fall in the north, saturation in the south
The number of migrant detainees on the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen by 66% from December to September, to a daily average of 3,350 undocumented immigrants, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said last Thursday.
However, irregular migration through Mexico rose 193% year-on-year in the first half of the year to more than 712,000, according to the government’s Migration Policy Unit.
The immigration regularization offices in Tapachula, one of the departure points for serving foreigners with confirmed appointments, are seeing an increase in people from Ecuador, Cuba, Haiti, Central America and other extracontinental countries.
As of last Friday, INM authorities in the Chiapas and Tabasco offices have issued 1,450 multiple immigration forms (FMM) valid for 20 days so that foreigners with a ‘CBP One’ appointment can travel to northern Mexico.
Yeimi, a migrant from Cuba, said that the application from the United States is now “quite safe,” so the appointment arrived in 15 days.
“I recommend it to anyone who wants to, it’s true, it’s the best way to enter the United States, the best way to get there, without danger, without having to go through anything to get to your destination, those with few resources have easy transportation,” he told EFE.
Still, he recommended “patience, a lot of patience,” because before the new rule he had been in Tapachula for six months.
Another Cuban, Edilberto, told EFE that it is an opportunity that must be taken advantage of.
“It has worked well, quickly, and at least it speeds up the paperwork, we are doing great. Of course, (it is) the best way to be able to arrive safely to the United States, to the ground, it is reliable, I say it is reliable, it is my first time coming here,” he said.
Juan Manuel Blanco.
Continue reading:
- Migrants to southern Mexico can now apply for appointments with US government app
- US extends use of CBP One asylum application to southern Mexico
- Mexico promises trips to migrants with asylum appointments to take them to the US border