Members of the border patrol block the passage to Central American migrants who try to enter the United States from Tijuana to request asylum.Joebeth Terriquez / EFE
The United States Supreme Court has once again raised the immigration issue on the bilateral agenda.
The highest US court ruled at the end of August that Joe Biden's government must reactivate the
Stay in Mexico program
. Implemented by Donald Trump, the mechanism forced asylum seekers to wait for a response in Mexican border cities. The ruling, which agrees with a conservative judge in Texas, comes amid a strong surge in the flow of migrants and with a complicated negotiation already open between the two countries to define a joint plan in Central America. The Supreme Court's decision adds more diplomatic pressure. Both parties will meet next Thursday, September 9, in Washington for a high-level meeting. In principle, the meeting is scheduled to revolve around commercial and economic issues, but Foreign Ministry sources confirm that the immigration issue will also be on the table.
The Supreme Court explicitly includes Mexico in its decision by recognizing that it is a binational plan that cannot be applied unilaterally by the United States and requires the collaboration of its neighbor to the south. Mexico's first response was ambiguous. On the one hand, Andrés Manuel López Obrador seemed to bet on bowing to the decision: "We will always try to have a very good relationship with the United States Government." On the other hand, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement underlining that "a judicial decision of this type does not bind Mexico and that immigration policy is designed and executed in a sovereign manner."
The López Obrador government celebrated in June the dismantling of the program, which symbolized the turn of the new Administration in tune with Mexico's position to bet on international cooperation with social programs in the countries of origin. “Theoretically, the ball is on the court in Mexico, which has total sovereignty to decide whether to collaborate or not. That is why a window of opportunity opens to support Biden's project and not continue with this Trump program that has caused a lot of suffering and which is also a simulation that seeks to discourage the asylum request, ”says Ana Saiz, lawyer and director of the NGO Sin Fronteras.
Organizations with Human Rights Watch have verified systematic abuses by Mexican police, immigration agents and criminal groups against the more than 70,000 asylum seekers sent to Mexico since January 2019. Of the total applications, only 1% were admitted by States. United. This same Thursday, the high commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Gillian Triggs, denounced "unprecedented pressure" on migrants. Some statements that coincided with the videos of Mexican officials cornering and mistreating the members of the umpteenth caravan that was trying to advance north from Chiapas.
Images that contradict the speeches and social plans of the Mexican Government. López Obrador started his term by launching a historic program of temporary work and residence permits for migrants. But from the order of Trump demanding a strong hand, organizations and academics question whether there is a real political will. The professor of Global Studies at New York University The New School
,
Alexandra Délano, is not very optimistic: “I presume that Mexico will continue to manage immigration policy, prioritizing border control and security beyond humanitarian problems. You have little incentive to do so. Criticism from civil society hardly entails political costs and it will choose to make things easier for the United States in exchange for compensation ”.
From the day after the Supreme Court's ruling, August 24, the obstacles on the border began again with a declaration that it suspended new entries and paralyzed asylum applications already underway. In parallel, Washington decided in early August to extend indefinitely the so-called Title 42, an exception that for health reasons allows immediate deportation without any formalities of migrants. The lawyer and director of the Institute for Women in Migration, Gretchen Kuhner, also believes that Mexico will bow to the return of the program. “Mexico's priority for economic reasons is the reopening of the border [which, due to the covid crisis, has been closed by land for more than a year except for residents or special cases] and the delivery of vaccines.That is why it is going to do whatever it takes in terms of containment in exchange for achieving its objectives ”.
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