Jose Luis Gonzalez/Portal
Migrants gather near the border wall after crossing the Rio Bravo with the intention of turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents to seek asylum, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, September 22, 2023.
CNN –
Mexico has reached an agreement with the United States to expel migrants from its border cities to their home countries and adopt several measures to deter migrants as part of new efforts to combat the recent surge in border crossings.
Mexican officials met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Friday in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas, after a recent surge in illegal border crossings into the U.S., temporarily closing an international bridge closed and traffic was disrupted in Mexico’s main freight train system.
As part of the agreement, Mexico agreed to “depressurize” its northern cities bordering El Paso, San Diego and Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor has declared a state of emergency. According to Mexico’s National Migration Institute, they will also take more than a dozen measures to prevent migrants from risking their lives by using the rail system to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.S. Department of Defense is increasing its resources at the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying at least 800 new active-duty soldiers to the border, where 2,500 National Guard members are already serving, Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters in a phone call Wednesday evening .
An overflow shelter in northeast El Paso holding about 6,500 migrants is scheduled to open its doors Saturday evening as the city faces an unprecedented surge of migrants crossing the southern U.S. border, said Deputy City Manager Mario D’ Agostino in a press conference.
The shelter, which operates out of the Nations Tobin Recreation Center, has been prepared over the “last few weeks,” D’Agostino said. The facility offers space for around 400 people.
El Paso is accepting more than 2,000 additional migrants every day, D’Agostino said, and the city is expecting a “large influx” in the next few days.
Migrant border crossings are increasing, topping 8,600 in 24 hours this week, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. This is an increase of about 3,500 daily border apprehensions after the expiration of Title 42 in May brought new consequences for those who cross the border illegally. There were more than 8,000 arrests on Monday.
The busiest sectors are Del Rio, El Paso, Lower Rio Grande Valley and Tucson; According to the official, there have been more than 1,000 encounters in each of the last 24 hours. Eagle Pass is in the Del Rio sector.
Friday’s meeting was attended by acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller, the commissioner of the Mexican National Migration Institute, the governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, members of the Mexican National Defense and National Guard, and representatives from Ferromex, a Mexican railway operator, who came to the institute .
Mexican officials pledged to carry out a series of 15 measures under the deal, some in coordination with Customs and Border Protection and Ferromex, including deporting migrants to their home countries by land and air.
The country said it would hold negotiations with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to confirm receipt of their citizens deported from the U.S.-Mexico border. It will also allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to deport migrants across the Ciudad Juarez International Bridge, which connects to El Paso.
Other terms of the agreement include submitting a daily report on the number of migrants in the train system to the Customs and Border Protection sector in El Paso, establishing checkpoints along the Ferromex rail line and conducting interventions on rail lines and highways, it said National Migration Institute of Mexico.
The institute said Mexico deported more than 788,000 migrants to their home countries from January 1 to September.
The agreed actions by Mexican officials raise questions about whether the country is taking on tasks normally destined for the U.S. in recent weeks — south of the border — to handle the influx of migrants that is straining federal resources and already has overwhelmed overcrowded facilities, CNN previously reported.
Many people who leave their homes for the United States have to undertake long and dangerous journeys in the hope of finding a better and safer life. Some may be fleeing violence, while others may be immigrating to take advantage of economic opportunities or to reunite with family, experts say. Deteriorating conditions in Latin America, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, have also contributed to the influx of migrants to the United States.
It’s likely that border crossings will continue to rise as more Mexican nationals plan to come to the U.S., Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told CNN.
U.S. government data shows more Mexican families are coming to the border and are likely to seek asylum, Ruiz said. In July 2022, for example, Customs and Border Protection figures indicate 4,000 Mexican family encounters at the border. A year later, the number had more than quadrupled, reaching almost 22,000.
“These are the three levers that are currently in play. … And regardless of what the Biden administration does today or tomorrow,” he says, “the people who are already on the path will continue unless something else happens in the region.”