{"id":148982,"date":"2021-05-04T15:32:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=354480"},"modified":"2021-05-04T15:32:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:32:21","slug":"enemy-mentality-mexico-cracks-down-on-migrants-and-asylum-seekers-at-its-southern-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/04\/enemy-mentality-mexico-cracks-down-on-migrants-and-asylum-seekers-at-its-southern-border\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEnemy Mentality\u201d: Mexico Cracks Down on Migrants and Asylum-Seekers at Its Southern Border"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nelson leaned a<\/u> flattened smart TV box against a tree, adjusting it to provide shade for his wife, who was lying down on the sidewalk to rest. It was pushing 100 degrees, hot even for Tapachula, a city in southern Mexico 11 miles from the closest official border crossing with Guatemala. The couple had been living in the streets since arriving in late January, but they were homeless before leaving Honduras too.<\/p>\n
Nelson and his wife, Maura, are from Puerto Cort\u00e9s, a Caribbean port city in northwestern Honduras. Along with other migrants and asylum-seekers interviewed for this story, they requested that only their first names be used to avoid risks to their security or immigration status. Nelson and Maura owned their modest home in Honduras, but it was near the edge of a large lagoon. When hurricanes Eta and Iota swept through Central America in November, the swollen Chamelec\u00f3n River fed the lagoon faster than it could empty into the sea, flooding their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe flooding took everything away,\u201d Nelson told The Intercept. They were able to stay temporarily in a makeshift shelter in a kindergarten but eventually ended up living on the side of a road under a plastic tarp. Between the hurricane devastation and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there was no work available to alleviate their situation and very little humanitarian aid. \u201cWe lived in the encampment in the street until we came here,\u201d said Nelson.<\/p>\n
The couple made it to Mexico 12 days after a significant and much publicized deployment of immigration officials and military and National Guard troops to the southern border, but none were in sight. The Suchiate River separating Guatemala and Mexico was low enough that Nelson and Maura could wade across, and it was not until later in Tapachula that they witnessed Mexico\u2019s militarized immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response of the Biden administration is very similar to the response of the Trump administration.\u201d<\/blockquote>\nMilitarization and crackdowns on migrants and asylum-seekers extend more than\u00a0a thousand\u00a0miles south of the U.S. border. Periodic shows of force at Mexico\u2019s southern border tend to occur when there\u2019s heightened U.S. pressure and attention on Central American migration, particularly in the context of highly visible \u201cmigrant caravan\u201d groups. But more often than not, operations are less geographically concentrated and tend to fly under the radar. It\u2019s not just migrants and asylum-seekers transiting the country who are the targets of militarized immigration operations, but also people seeking asylum in southern Mexico. The specifics are often in flux, but the bigger picture remains the same: The militarization of immigration enforcement far south of the U.S. border has been increasing and is U.S.-driven.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the new administration in the U.S., many people had expectations for a potential change in focus. We have been more wary from the beginning,\u201d Yuriria Salvador, coordinator for structural change at the Fray Mat\u00edas de C\u00f3rdova Human Rights Center, told The Intercept in the courtyard of the organization\u2019s office in Tapachula. \u201cThe response of the Biden administration is very similar to the response of the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\nA Show of Force<\/h3>\n
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on April 12 that the Biden administration had secured commitments from the governments of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to increase border security. \u201cI think the objective is to make it more difficult to make the journey and make crossing the border more \u2014 more difficult,\u201d Psaki said at the briefing.<\/p>\n
The Guatemalan government was quick to issue a statement countering the notion that there was any agreement and clarified that the deployment of 1,500 police and military personnel mentioned by Psaki was a temporary response to a caravan. The Honduran government likewise insisted that there was no deal. Following the confusion and contradictions, Ricardo Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, U.S. special envoy for Central America\u2019s Northern Triangle, revisited the issue and stated that there were ongoing bilateral discussions but not any new agreements.<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s response was more ambiguous. \u201cMexico made the decision to maintain 10,000 troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions,\u201d Psaki said on April 12. The Mexican government clarified that its efforts involved 12,000 people, though not just troops and not just to the southern border. The government did mention an agreement concerning efforts to address the migration of minors but did not provide any details.<\/p>\n