Mexico Using ‘Racist Criteria’ to Expel Massive Number of Central American Refugees

Mexico has militarized immigration enforcement efforts that primarily target Central Americans fleeing violence in their home countries while refusing to invest in programs to guarantee their safety, various news reports reveal.

Asylum-seekers, including women and children, are facing torture at the hands of Mexican authorities, the reports suggest.

With the looming Mexican presidential elections on July 1, candidates like the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who is expected to win — vows to demilitarize the immigration enforcement, National Public Radio (NPR) reports.

In a speech last Tuesday, Obrador declared:

"After the victory of our movement, we will defend all migrants in the American continent and all the migrants in the world. … Military and police force will not be used to repress the [migrant] population. We will primarily use diplomatic channels with the origin countries of these migrants to reach some kind of agreement."

Until then, Central Americans seeking refuge in Mexico are facing various human rights violations not only by criminal groups who demand payment just for passing through but also at the hands of immigration officials accused of using “a secret quota system” to increase the number of deportations.

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