The Mexican government said Monday that it “has no problems” in welcoming Haitian migrants “as long as they respect the laws” in the midst of the crisis that has left tens of thousands stranded on the northern and southern borders of Mexico.
“Mexico has no problem that they can be in our country, as long as they respect the laws of Mexico,” Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican secretary of Foreign Relations, told the media.
His statements come after about 13,000 irregular migrants, mostly from Haiti, were held by the United States immigration authorities in a makeshift camp under the international bridge that links Del Río, Texas, with Mexico’s Ciudad Acuña, in Coahuila. .
The migrants have been crossing into the United States since last Tuesday and have overwhelmed the immigration authorities, who have improvised the camp waiting to process asylum applications or return them to their country by airplanes.
The Haitians come from Brazil and Chile after, in August, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported the expansion of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, an announcement that traffickers are misrepresenting, according to the foreign minister. Ebrard.
The Mexican secretary asserted that the country can receive them, but that “most of them want to go to the United States . “
“We are offering all kinds of solutions, via the National Migration Institute, some have accepted refuge in Mexico, I think 15%, more or less,” the foreign minister reported.
The region is dealing with a historic migratory flow, with 147,000 undocumented persons detected in Mexico from January to August, triple that of 2020, and a record of 212,000 undocumented persons detained in July alone by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Government of Mexico has also received criticism for the deployment of the National Guard and the Army on the southern border, from which images have emerged showing the elements as they beat up caravans with migrants from Haiti and Central America.
Secretary Ebrard commented that Mexico will propose “that there be a global and regional effort to support Haiti because they do have a very difficult situation . “
In particular, they will seek elections after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July, and humanitarian support, such as vaccines, food and medicine.
“We are the Latin American country that has sent the most support to Haiti and now we want to ask the United States and other countries in the world, the UN, to take measures so that a better situation can be found in that country,” he said.
The United States Government insisted on Monday that migrants who arrive at the country’s southern border illegally will be “returned” to their nations of origin, after the massive crossing in recent days.
“If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned. Your trip will not be successful and you will endanger your life and that of your family ,” the Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States (DHS) said at a press conference in Del Rio. Alejandro Mayorkas.