From January 2021 to December 2022, Human Rights First tracked at least 13,480 reports of murder, kidnapping, rape, torture and other violent attacks against people blocked or expelled to Mexico under Title 42. In March 2023, a fire at a migrant center in Ciudad Juárez killed at least 38 people. Finally, between the time the asylum ban took effect in mid-May and the end of November, Human Rights First found that more than 1,300 migrants faced kidnapping, torture, rape, extortion and other violence while waiting in Mexico.
The premise that Mexico can accommodate tens to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated is false. The gross domestic product of Mexico is 1/18 that of the United States, and it accepted more than 200,000 refugees in the past three years. It simply does not have the resources to do more.
Furthermore, a grand bargain should do more. Asylum processing should be properly supported so that claims are handled fairly and expeditiously. Regulatory barriers that hinder asylum seekers from obtaining work authorization in a timely manner, particularly the 180-day waiting period, should be eliminated. That would ease the financial burden on the cities that are hosting migrants. A grand bargain should include proposals that Congress has been considering for years, such as the Dream Act, the Afghan Adjustment Act and the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act.
Ideally, our immigration system should be fixed holistically, but a bipartisan grand bargain that included at least these elements would be a significant step.
Stephen Eckstrand, Frederick, Maryland
Co-convener, Immigration Action Team, UUSJ
Note: this item was originally published in the Washington Post: Opinion: Making migrants wait in Mexico is not a good solution, December 29, 2023, print and online versions.