Spotlight
Letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris to Double Down on a Real Root Causes Strategy in Central America
Latin America Working Group, April 14, 2023
“Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris, We appreciate the Biden Administration’s commitment to address the root causes of migration from Central America. As organizations working with civil society and faith-based partners in Central America, we know that strong and principled diplomacy to combat corruption, promote respect for human rights, worker rights, and the rule of law, and encourage inclusive governance must be the driving force of the United States’ approach to the region.”
Carta al Presidente Biden y a la Vicepresidente Harris para redoblar la apuesta para una verdadera estrategia de causas raíz en Centroamérica
Latin America Working Group, 14 de abril de 2023
“Estimados Presidente Biden y Vicepresidente Harris, Agradecemos el compromiso de la Administración Biden para abordar las causas profundas de la migración desde Centroamérica. Como organizaciones que trabajan con la sociedad civil y socios religiosos en Centroamérica, sabemos que una diplomacia fuerte y basada en principios para combatir la corrupción, promover el respeto de los derechos humanos, los derechos de los trabajadores y el estado de derecho, y fomentar la gobernanza inclusiva debe ser la fuerza impulsora del enfoque de los Estados Unidos hacia la región”.
U.S. Enforcement
US parole program to continue post-Title 42, Mexico to accept returnees
Brendan O’Boyle and Kylie Madry, Reuters, May 2, 2023
“The United States will continue to accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under a humanitarian program after May 11, when the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.”
Biden aumenta la militarización de la frontera con México ante el potencial incremento de la inmigración
Luis Pablo Beauregard, El Pais, 2 de mayo de 2023
“Tensión en la frontera con México. El Gobierno de Joe Biden movilizará a 1.500 soldados en activo a la zona ante el inminente fin de la emergencia sanitaria, el próximo 11 de mayo. La Administración cree que la desaparición del título 42, que expira con la declaratoria de emergencia de la pandemia, incrementará los cruces ilegales a más de 10.000 cada día, según cifras oficiales. Funcionarios de la Casa Blanca argumentan que los militares se encargarán de tareas administrativas para descargar a la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CPB, por sus siglas en inglés), que actuará sobre el terreno para contener el flujo migratorio”.
U.S. planning to send 1,500 more troops to southern border
Alexander Ward et al., Politico, May 2, 2023
“The Biden administration is planning to send 1,500 more active-duty troops temporarily to the southern border to assist agents ahead of an expected influx of migrants seeking asylum, three U.S. officials said Tuesday. The move comes as Title 42, the public-health law that permits the U.S. to deny asylum and migrations claims for public health reasons, is set to expire on May 11. Some senior U.S. officials say the end of Title 42 could entice more people seeking a better life in America to present themselves at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Biden & The Border: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Last Week Tonight, 30 de abril de 2023
“John Oliver discusses the things Biden has promised to fix about our southern border, what he has and hasn’t done, and a magnificent pile of gators.”
U.S. Government Announces Sweeping New Actions to Manage Regional Migration
U.S. Department of State, April 27, 2023
“Today, the Department of State (State) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are announcing sweeping new measures to further reduce unlawful migration across the Western Hemisphere, significantly expand lawful pathways for protection, and facilitate the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants. Like many other COVID-era public health measures, the CDC’s temporary Title 42 public health order will also come to an end. But the lifting of the Title 42 order does not mean the border is open. When the Title 42 order lifts at 11:59 PM on May 11, the United States will return to using Title 8 immigration authorities to expeditiously process and remove individuals who arrive at the U.S. border unlawfully.”
US ramping up deportations and expanding legal pathways to deter border crossers
Ted Hesson and Matt Spetalnick, Reuters, April 27, 2023
“The United States will ramp up deportations while also expanding legal pathways for would-be migrants as it braces for a possible spike in illegal border crossings when COVID-19 restrictions are set to end next month, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The U.S. will double or triple the number of deportation flights to some countries and aim to process migrants crossing the border illegally “in a matter of days,” the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a fact sheet about their plans.”
STATEMENT: CAP Urges Biden Administration To Designate Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for TPS – Center for American Progress
Madia Coleman, CAP, April 26, 2023
“It is imperative that the Biden administration use its statutory authority to designate these four Central American countries for TPS. New designations are fully justified based on current country conditions. TPS designations would promote a more holistic, smart, humane, and effective approach to managing migration. Research shows that by gaining access to the labor market and earning higher wages, TPS holders frequently send larger amounts of money home in the form of remittances, promoting local economic development and ameliorating some of the root causes of irregular migration. The Biden administration should take this opportunity to make a transformative difference by issuing these TPS designations.”
Mexican Enforcement
México y Estados Unidos fortalecen Plan Humanitario Conjunto sobre Migración
Presidencia de la República, Gobierno de México, 2 de mayo de 2023
“El 2 de mayo, el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador y la asesora de Seguridad Nacional de los Estados Unidos, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, se reunieron en la Ciudad de México para construir sobre la exitosa iniciativa que el presidente López Obrador y el presidente Biden anunciaron en enero de 2023. Así, México y Estados Unidos anunciaron hoy un conjunto de medidas adicionales para atender la situación humanitaria provocada por los flujos migratorios sin precedentes en nuestra frontera compartida y en la región”.
Mexico’s Congress Should Ban Discriminatory Immigration Checks
Ari Sawyer, Human Rights Watch, April 25, 2023
“It was already dark when the bus I was riding pulled to a stop at an immigration checkpoint on the highway leading north out of Oaxaca, Mexico, towards Mexico City. These kinds of immigration stops and checkpoints have become commonplace across Mexico, which has faced pressure from the United States to prevent migrants from Central and South America and beyond from reaching the US-Mexico border. Soldiers and immigration agents board buses, pull over cars, stop people in airports, raid hotels, and patrol parks and plazas to apprehend undocumented migrants.”
Corte avala que la Guardia Nacional pueda asegurar a migrantes y vigile estaciones de detención
Animal Politico, 24 de abril de 2023
“La Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) avaló que la Guardia Nacionalbrinde apoyo al Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) y pueda asegurar y resguardar a personas extranjeras, así como vigilar el interior de las estaciones migratorias. Además, incluye la facultad para inspeccionar los documentos migratorios de personas extranjeras y, en su caso, presentar a quienes se encuentren en situación irregular, siempre de manera subordinada al INM. Esto, pese a que organizaciones pidieron a la Corte revocar la intervención de la Guardia Nacional en tareas migratorias tras haber documentado violaciones a los derechos humanos de migrantes como agresiones, abuso de la fuerza, encapsulamiento, dispersión de personas en tránsito y casos de tortura en estaciones migratorias”.
Root Causes
Mexico
Mexico’s Haitian asylum seekers lack access to basic resources, says IRC
Sarah Morland, Reuters, April 27, 2023
“More than nine in 10 Haitians seeking asylum in Mexico lack the resources to cover basic necessities such as food, shelter and medical care, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid group said on Thursday. Tens of thousands of Haitians have been displaced in recent months as heavily armed gangs have expanded their control over the country, where there are frequent reports of kidnappings, sexual violence and violent turf wars.”
Desaparece en Nayarit antropólogo forense de la Comisión Estatal de Búsqueda
Aristegui Noticias, 13 de abril de 2023
“El antropólogo forense Juan Carlos Tercero Aley desapareció desde el pasado 6 de abril en Nayarit, pero se desconocen detalles de su última ubicación, por lo que se ha iniciado una ficha de búsqueda para dar con su paradero. Tercero Aley es académico, investigador y recientemente se había incorporado a laComisión Estatal de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas de Nayarit, además de que que es docente en distintas instituciones de educación superior del estado y del país. La Fiscalía General del Estado de Nayarit emitió una ficha de búsqueda en la que señala que la denuncia de su desaparición se interpuso el pasado 11 de abril”.
INFORME GIEI Una visión global sobre los hechos, las responsabilidades y la situación del caso Ayotzinapa A ocho años y medio del caso
Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes (GIEI), 31 de marzo de 2023
“Desde septiembre de 2022 cuando el GIEI presentó su último informe1, el grupo ha seguido trabajando para tratar de hacer avanzar la investigación, buscar nuevas fuentes y archivos, colaborar con las autoridades y escuchar y trabajar con las víctimas y familiares para atender a sus derechos a la verdad y la justicia. Tanto las autoridades de México como los familiares, representantes y la CIDH estuvieron de acuerdo en la continuación de los trabajos del grupo”.
Out of Sight and Out of Mind: An interpretative human rights report on US-Mexico border violence under MPP and Title 42
Blake Gentry, Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, 2023
“The main research questions pursued in this study of violence at the US Mexico Border under the United States’ Migrant Protection Program and Title 42 were: Does the data on violence demonstrate a pattern of purpose? Were certain acts of violence structured as a coherent business enterprise, or were they carried out randomly? What economic role (if any) did that violence play? There exists a glaring contrast between the legal architecture created in the post WWII international order under the Bretton Woods Agreements and legal architecture created by neo-liberal states, some forty years later.”
Investigating the Global Firearms Trade and Its Human Impacts in Mexico: International Delegation Report
Stop US Arms to Mexico Org, 2023
“From February 19 to 25, 2023, an International Delegation visited Mexico to investigate the flow of firearms, with the aim of strengthening the visibility, understanding and strategies to reduce and control the flow of firearms to Mexico from other countries, especially the United States, and demonstrate the interest and opposition of international civil society to the uncontrolled flow of firearms. The visit occurred in the context of enormous violence: From 2010 through 2022, Mexico experienced more than 214,000 gun homicides, constituting more than two every three murders in the country.1 This gun violence does not impact all equally or in the same way.”
Guatemala
Informe Anual 2022
PBI Guatemala, Abril 2023
“En el año 2022 hemos asistido a la profundización del deterioro del Estado del Derecho en Guatemala debido a: la agudización de los ataques a la independencia del sistema de justicia y a la libertad de expresión; la represión y criminalización contra líderes, lideresas y comunidades indígenas en defensa del territorio y los bienes naturales; diversas acciones legislativas, políticas y judiciales que siguen cerrando el espacio cívico y consolidando un régimen autoritario”.
El Salvador
U.S. Citizens Are Getting Caught Up in El Salvador’s Mass Arrests
Ricardo J Valencia, Americas Quarterly, May 3, 2023
“Since March 2022, when the government of El Salvador imposed a state of emergency to reduce gang killings, the administration of President Nayib Bukele has arrested more than 64,000 people, equivalent to 2% of the country’s adult population. Millions have lost fundamental rights such as the right to legal counsel and due process—and foreign nationals are no exception. In April 2022, two Salvadoran-Americans were arrested along with dozens of others while attending a fundraiser for a man suffering from kidney failure.”
Human Rights Defenders To Sue the Salvadoran State
teleSUR, April 27, 2023
“Humanitarian Legal Aid (SJH) began to collect information to establish a collective lawsuit against the Salvadoran state, which must take responsibility for the people who have died in prisons, or after being released, during President Jayib Bukele’s emergency regime. This Salvadoran NGO will present its legal recourse to the Inter-American Human Rights System, where it will request moral and material reparation measures for the affected citizens. The plaintiffs have as objectives “to clear the name of the innocent people” and to demand that “the Salvadoran State ask for forgiveness,” said Ingrid Escobar, the SJH Director.”
Honduras
ONG pide a Honduras declarar emergencia educativa
La Prensa, 27 de abril de 2023
“La ONG Asociación para una Sociedad mas Justa (ASJ) pidió este jueves al Gobierno de Honduras declarar un ‘estado de emergencia’ en el sistema educativo e impulsar una campaña para atraer a más de 1,2 millones de estudiantes que se marcharon de las aulas por varias razones”.
Migración irregular en Honduras mantiene considerable tendencia al alza, afirman autoridades
N News, 25 de abril de 2023
“El flujo de migrantes extranjeros que arriba a Honduras de forma irregular en su ruta migratoria por Centroamérica rumbo al norte del continente mantiene una tendencia considerable al alza, según datos del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM). La gerente de Derechos Humanos y Atención al Migrante del INM, Joseana Martínez, explicó este lunes a Xinhua que desde inicio del año hasta el pasado 19 de abril han llegado a territorio hondureño 74.666 migrantes de manera irregular”.
Incendios forestales debilitan el suelo y lo hacen propenso a plagas
Elvis Mendoza, El Heraldo, 25 de abril de 2023
“Un gris y desolador panorama es el resultado que dejan los incendios forestales, que han destruido 7,355 hectáreas de bosques en el Distrito Central.En promedio, de dos a tres incendios se han mantenido activos en la capital, lo que genera que la ciudad esté llena de humo, reduciendo la visibilidad y haciendo que las enfermedades respiratorias aumenten en la población”.
Regional
2023 World Press Freedom Index – journalism threatened by fake content industry
Reporters without Border, 2023
“According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index – which evaluates the environment for journalism in 180 countries and territories and is published on World Press Freedom Day (3 May) – the situation is “very serious” in 31 countries, “difficult” in 42, “problematic” in 55, and “good” or “satisfactory” in 52 countries. In other words, the environment for journalism is “bad” in seven out of ten countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten.”
U.S. to open immigrant processing centers in Latin America
Nick Miroff, The Washington Post, April 27, 2023
“The Biden administration said Thursday that it will set up new immigration processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala as part of a wider hemispheric effort to curb human smuggling and the soaring number of illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described plans for the centers and announced other preparations the administration is making in anticipation that illegal crossings — already near record levels — will surge even higher when the White House lifts pandemic-era border controls on May 11.”
3,000 migrants begin protest walk through Mexico after detention center fire
Edgar H. Clemente, PBS NewsHour, April 23, 2023
“Around 3,000 migrants set out Sunday on what they call a mass protest procession through southern Mexico to demand the end of detention centers like the one that caught fire last month, killing 40 migrants. The migrants started from the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border. They say their aim is to reach Mexico City to demand changes in the way migrants are treated.”
Reception and Integration of Migrants and Refugees in Cities Across the Americas
Pablo Ceriani Cernadas et al., Organization of American States, 2023
“Current migration dynamics in the Americas are clearly different from what they were a few decades ago. Inequalities and recent socio-economic, political, and environmental crises have given rise to new migratory movements and a regional human mobility panorama that urgently requires further study. It is evident that local actors are at the center of this new context. They are often the ones who provide initial assistance to people arriving in their territories and they have the opportunity to offer support to ensure their well-being, security, and respect and safeguarding of their rights; and in particular, to accompany them—through public policies, programs, projects, and services—in reception and integration processes.”
Actions, Alerts, and Resources
Medidad de Control de la Inmigración en la Transición del Título 42 al Título 8
Alianza Americas, 1 de mayo de 2023
“#AlianzaAmericas resume y explica las nuevas medidas migratorias anunciadas por el gobierno de @POTUS ante el fin del #Título42, el próximo 11 de mayo.”
Immigration Enforcement Measures as U.S. Transitions From Title 42 to Title 8
Alianza Americas, May 1, 2023
“#AlianzaAmericas summarizes and explains the new immigration measures announced by the @POTUS administration ahead of the end of #Title42 on May 11.”
Action Alert: Tell Congress to Support Humanitarian Protection!
“Nearly 300 advocates from across the country have come to Washington, DC to advocate with Members of Congress in support of policies and legislation to restore US humanitarian protection programs. Become part of the campaign by messaging your Members of Congress.”
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