A growing wave of immigrant refugees is choosing to head to Mexico rather than attempt getting into the US, as a result of the latter’s tough new immigration policies. The increase in immigrant refugees resettling in Mexico is paralleled by a decrease in the number heading to the US, with the apprehension of undocumented families and unaccompanied minors by US Border Patrol dropping dramatically.
President Donald Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement in the US, resulting in falling numbers of immigrant refugees attempting to enter the country. Last week, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, warned those attempting to enter the country illegally that they should not think they would be comfortable, as people will be looking for them.
Maureen Meyer, the senior associate for Mexico at the human rights organization, the Washington Office on Latin America, says the US has decided to project itself as a country not welcoming to immigrants, so fewer people are now setting their sights on going there. In 2015, Mexico received 3424 applications by refugees, a figure that increased to 8794 in 2016. This year looks set to outpace those figures in 2017, with the number between January and May of this year already reaching 5464.
Almost all these people are from countries in Central America. The regional UNHCR spokeswoman, Francesca Fontanini, says there needs to be an increase in the humanitarian response to the avalanche of immigrants heading to the southern border of Mexico.