Mexico has apparently come to the conclusion that illegal immigration is a bad thing. The uncontrolled flow of people across the border has effected Mexico enough that they feel the need to take action.
This is Mexico's southern border by the way.
Apparently people seeking a better life is not a good reason to cross the border as has been claimed in the past.
Donald Trump wants a wall on America’s southern border to keep illegal immigrants out. But for people such as Rosa, whose husband, mother, sister,
brother-in-law and two nephews were murdered in her native Honduras by gangs who then tried to recruit her 14-year-old son, Mexico already acts as a
formidable barrier.
Rosa, who asked for her full name not to be used, fled with her two teenage sons only to find herself trapped in a political controversy that the US
Republican candidate has put at the heart of his campaign.
Zero net immigration of Mexicans into the US and an 82 per cent fall in people caught trying to cross the US-Mexico border in the past 10 years means
that most would-be immigrants detained there are Central Americans. Even without Mr Trump’s fortress frontier, Mexico finds itself under increasing
pressure to stem the migrant tide near its source — its own southern border.
Mexico has become a wall for migrants,” said Sister Magdalena Silva, co-ordinator of Cafemin, a privately run shelter in Mexico City that takes in
refugee families, including Rosa’s. “The current policy is to arrest migrants to stop them from getting to the US border.”
The UN estimates 400,000 Central Americans cross illegally into Mexico each year and as many as half of those are fleeing violence. The majority are
quickly deported back to dangerous homes.
Unlike in the US, Mexico has broadened asylum laws to recognise that fleeing violence of the kind practised by the street gangs of Honduras and El
Salvador can classify someone as a refugee. But the odds are still stacked against asylum seekers: Mexico deported a record 175,000 Central Americans
last year, up 68 per cent from the previous year and nearly two-and-a-half times the number deported by the US.
The US is coy about its role in Mexico’s crackdown but is sending $75m in equipment and training to help stop Central Americans from crossing
illegally into Mexico. Hosting Mr Trump two weeks ago, President Enrique Peña Nieto said that “making Mexico’s border with our friends and
neighbours in Central America more secure is of vital importance for Mexico and the US”.
Rosa left Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, with her two teenage sons in January 2016 after a gang tried to recruit one of them on his way home from
school. “We know when a gang targets someone, they don’t leave them alone and they follow through on their threats,” she said.
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