Translated by Jesús Ronquillo / Circuito Frontera
Settling in the United States for a “better life” is a recurring idea for people from Latin American countries in recent years. However, despite the “migrant waves”, the Mexican population tops the list of people who tried to cross into the United States to obtain a “green card”.
Compared to other Latin American countries, from 2020 to 2022, the number of Mexican migrants exceeded three times the number of encounters/deportations from Honduras and Guatemala, seven times those from El Salvador and eight times those from Venezuela, according to information from the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
This has meant for migrants who have tried to cross into the United States and settle, in addition to a tedious journey, making the same trip up to two or three times, due to the massive deportations or repatriations carried out by the U.S. government every year.
An example of this is that, from 2020 to 2022, the United States documented one million 801 thousand 26 “encounters” (deportations) of Mexicans, including men, women and children.
Although this does not necessarily correspond to the number of people deported, as the same person can be detained in these encounters on several occasions.
Title 8 and Title 42
In accordance with U.S. immigration law, deportations of migrants are carried out under Title 8 and Title 42 restrictions, the latter of which began to be implemented after the pandemic, as part of U.S. health measures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals.
Title 8 is a measure of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) enacted in 1952.
This restriction establishes that the Border Patrol detain and process migrants who cross the border irregularly, since the legal way to settle in the United States is through an asylum application, for various reasons.
It also states that if a person is removed under Title 8, they will be barred from entering the country for five years. In addition, these individuals will be detained in the U.S. until the U.S. can process their removal.
In the case of this measure, people who are expelled from the United States will no longer be able to process an asylum application to legally enter that country.
While Title 42 was a sanitary measure implemented as of March 21, 2020, for the expulsion of foreign persons, due to the Covid-19 alert worldwide.
Under this measure, migrants are immediately sent to Mexico, while through Title 8, people are temporarily detained in the United States until they can be sent to their countries of origin.
We are human and they call us Mexicans
According to information gathered by Circuito Frontera, the total number of deportations/encounters carried out by the United States in the last three years was 5 million 369,923, of people from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Venezuela.
Of this total, Mexicans accounted for 33.5 percent, with 1,801,262 encounters in the same period of time.
During 2022, registered encounters of Mexicans by U.S. authorities were 823,57 with March, April and May registering the highest number of deportations. In those months, 82,361; 76,414 and 70,395 encounters were reported, respectively.
In addition, of this total, 751,559 correspond to single adult men and women; 40,820 to family groups; 28,31 to unaccompanied minors and 2,674 to accompanied minors.
This means that during the past year, U.S. authorities registered a total of 30,705 encounters of minors, which corresponds to 3.73 percent of the total deportations of Mexicans in 2022.
It is worth noting that the number of unaccompanied minors has been increasing since 2020, as 34,126 encounters were reported in that year; 147,945 in 2021 and 152,880 in 2022.
Tijuana is the preferred place for Mexicans to cross into Mexico
Circuito Frontera interviewed Jesús Peña, PhD researcher at the Department of Social Studies of the Colegio de la Frontera Norte based in Ciudad Juarez, who reported that, according to the Mexican Border Migration Survey (EMIF) in the northern region, neither Ciudad Juarez nor the state of Chihuahua in general were among the main crossings used by Mexicans to enter the United States.
Said that the survey represents the deported Mexican population over 18 years of age who were captured at 12 INM border repatriation points, including the Guadalajara and CDMX airports.
He explained that, according to this survey, from July to December of last year, the U.S. government deported 87,340 Mexican adults between the ages of 18 and 45 to Mexico through the northern border.
Study also showed that of the people who crossed into the United States during 2022, was a total of 67,520 entered the country the same year.
The specialist mentioned that the main cities were Tijuana with 28 percent; Mexicali and Tamaulipas with 9 percent, as well as Nogales and Río Colorado with 5 percent
He explained that 7 out of 10 of the Mexican returnees interviewed indicated that they tried to settle in the United States to work.
One of the questions asked in the survey was how they chose the city where they would cross into the United States, and the first reason was the ease of crossing, with 35 percent, and the second reason was the destination, with 19 percent.
He also mentioned that according to the EMIF, during the past year a phenomenon that had not been recorded for decades was observed: the increase in the number of Mexican women migrants.
The specialist emphasized that this phenomenon had not been observed since 1995.
According to the survey, 16 percent of the crossings of deported Mexican nationals corresponded to women, while in other decades this figure did not even reach 8 percent.
In addition, the survey revealed that 25 percent of the people surveyed said they would attempt to cross into the United States in the next 7 days; 7 percent in three months; 63 percent answered that they would not cross in at least 3 and 6 months, while 2 percent said they did not know.
Also, only 4.3 percent said they tried to apply for asylum in the United States. Of this total, 20 percent said that after applying for asylum they were afraid to return to Mexico.
Of those 20 percent, 64 percent said they were afraid of returning to Mexico because of the climate of insecurity and violence in the country.
Mexicans sought to settle in the United States with tourist visas
Due to the problems faced by migrants who decide to pay for a “coyote” to enter the United States, in addition to the restrictions imposed by that country, the Mexican population in mobility sought other options such as “entering” through a tourist visa.
This was announced by Jesús Peña, PhD researcher at the Department of Social Studies of the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) based in Ciudad Juárez.
The specialist indicated that this information was gathered through the Mexican Border Migration Survey (EMIF).
He also explained that Chihuahua was one of the states where there were fewer crossings of the Mexican migrant population. However, this does not necessarily mean that migration decreased, but rather that they sought alternatives such as the processing of tourist visas.
This was due to a series of factors such as avoiding a payment of at least 5 thousand dollars to organized crime by those involved in human trafficking, as well as the risks involved in this trip.
In this regard, it should be recalled that the United States maintains two modalities for the expulsion of foreigners from the country: Title 8 and Title 42.
Title 8 has been in force since 1952 and establishes that the Border Patrol may detain and process foreign nationals who enter the country in an irregular manner, and they will remain in detention until their removal from the country is processed.
The Title 42 measure is a sanitary restriction implemented as of March 21, 2020, for the removal of foreign nationals, due to the worldwide Covid-19 alert.
The researcher explained that, after the increase in restrictions, the Mexican population sought other alternatives, such as the use of tourist visas, which was also documented through the EMIF survey.
Also, the use of tourist visas to enter the United States was more notorious during the administration of the then president of that country, Donald Trump.
