The government of Mexico has rejected a possible relaunch of the United States immigration plan known as the Stay in Mexico (Stay in Mexico, for its Spanish translation). The measure allows non-Mexicans to be sent back to Mexico pending a resolution by US authorities on their asylum claim. The reasons for the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a press release are unknown, even if everything indicates the lack of consensus between the two countries in the face of the migration crisis that the border has been experiencing for several years.

A month ago, the governments of Mexico and the United States made a commitment at the tripartite summit with Canada to tackle the problem of immigration. Mexico has insisted on tackling the structural causes of migration in countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize, while Joe Biden’s government has announced a measure to reduce the influx of migrants to its southern border and to admit 30,000 Mexican citizens each month. , Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti which have a “sponsor” in the United States.

Yet authorities still disagree with the Stay in Mexico program, suspended in 2021 by the current government and reactivated by a Texas court last December. “Under the current administration of President Joseph Biden, approximately 7,500 people have entered the country under Section 235(b)(2)(C) [Quédate en México]. This figure is equivalent to 0.33% of the total number of meetings registered at the Mexico-United States border between December 2021 and October 2022,” the Foreign Relations statement said. This figure was 74,000 people during the mandate of former President Donald Trump, promoter of the measure.

At the last tripartite summit, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed the need to implement protection and health policies, especially for vulnerable groups, as well as to work closely with international organizations to take adequate care of migrants and refugees. However, the reality that thousands of migrants face every day is very different. Migrant rights activists say Mexican authorities are overwhelmed and people, pending resolution, are left in dangerous Mexican border towns where they face threats of kidnapping and extortion.

If the Mexican government remains firm in its opposition, the United States will likely have to consider whether asylum seekers can remain in its territory while their claims are assessed or make other arrangements to remove them from the country.

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