Under U.S. pressure Mexico shifts immigration policy

Under growing pressure from the U.S. government, Mexico’s immigration policy has moved from one promising to help migrants to another characterized by militarized enforcement that has support of the country’s foreign secretary. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has faced pointed criticism from the left about the change in direction, but Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard made clear this week after a meeting at the White House that Mexico plans to stick with the get-tough approach that has succeeded in reducing the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S. border. The debate over Mexico’s approach to immigration comes as a wave of migrants continues to try to cross the country to reach the United States. Following a threat by President Donald Trump to implement crippling tariffs on all Mexican imports in late May, Mexico stepped up measures to contain and dissuade migrants who say they are fleeing violence and poverty. Thousands of members of a newly created National Guard have been deployed to run highway checkpoints on migrant routes. Bus companies have been warned not to sell tickets to passengers without documents. The head of the country’s immigration agency, a sociologist and academic who studied immigration, was replaced by the head of the federal prison system. More than 40,000 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. have been sent back to Mexico to wait out the process. State offices of Mexico’s immigration agency were given quotas for the number of migrant detentions they needed to make, said two people with knowledge of the situation. They agreed to discuss the matter only if granted anonymity because they feared repercussions, but they would not say who issued the order...MORE