In this first quarter of 2022, the Ministry of the Interior allocated more resources than it originally budgeted for immigration control operations by the National Institute of Migration (INM). Data from the Ministry of Finance reveal an over-exercise of more than 571 million pesos in this area.
In contrast, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has underexercised the resources allocated to defend them: it stopped spending 88 million pesos destined, among other things, to “address issues related to migrants and promote promotional actions in the matter.”
This was announced on Friday by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in its quarterly report called: “Physical and financial progress of investment programs and projects.”
The agency had an approved budget of more than one billion pesos, but spent more than one thousand 600 million. The arguments detail that the Ministry of the Interior made greater expenditures for the Migration Policy program and for immigration services.
In fact, the Migration Policy program is a priority and from January to March its financial progress is 266.6%.
On the other hand, the CNDH reduced expenditures to attend to migrants and also for the attention to the public in its central offices, that is why it had a sub-exercise of more than 80 million pesos, since its approved budget for the first quarter of 2022 was more than 384 million, but only spent 296 million pesos.
Animal Político sought the position of the CNDH and the Governor’s Office regarding its spending this quarter, but there was no response. The press liaison of the Governor’s Office said that the information would be reviewed with oficialía Mayor, but in the end there was no more data.
Migrant detentions on the rise
Over the course of three years, immigration policy in Mexico has an increasing component: the detentions of Central American migrants seeking to reach the United States.
Last November, Animal Político published that after the meeting held by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with US Vice President Kamala Harris, migrant detentions soared by 120%.
After the cooperation agreement between Mexico and the United States was signed, immigration policy increased the detention of migrants. By July of that year, catches climbed by 23%; in August, they increased by up to 71%; and for September it was 120% up.
In 2021, more than 307 thousand migrants were presented or channeled by the immigration authorities, while in 2020 it was more than 82 thousand migrants.
In the operations of the INM, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior, when stopping the migrant caravans there have been episodes where agents attack Central Americans.
There are even operations where elements of the INM and the National Guard are looking for migrants in hotels, as published by Animal Político in September.
CNDH hides cases
There is a long history of violence against migrants that have happened in Mexico. Even President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insists that in his administration “the human rights of migrants are no longer violated”; however, the CNDH has concealed various incidents such as kidnappings, torture or rape of migrants.
In February 2021, Animal Político published a series of testimonies of migrants that relate violent events and that emerge from internal documents of the CNDH, but the commission classified the testimonies as “reserved” information, claiming that making them transparent would put the lives of migrants at risk, despite the fact that those testimonies are anonymous.
At the beginning of 2020, after requesting on several occasions the position of the CNDH, he finally gave an interview and sent a summary of 44 press releases with various recommendations issued in defense of migrants. However, none of these recommendations relate to cases of mass abductions.
In February 2020, the CNDH sent another letter in which, through four points, it defends its work to protect migrants, indicating that it makes periodic visits to both migrant holding centers and civil society shelters.
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