In the past four months, Mexicans have once again become the majority of unauthorized migrants caught at the border.
The country is struggling with its highest-ever level of homicides and a stagnant GDP, while a booming U.S. economy simultaneously creates a powerful draw north.said Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, D.C. “We should be concerned that the Mexican economy is not growing and, in certain states, is in recession. And violence is once again on the rise and hitting record levels.
Overall, border agents apprehended 63,405 Mexican nationals in the four-month period, 87% of them single adults, compared with 47,000 Central Americans detained over the same period. In contrast, border agents detained 144,836 Central Americans and 44,832 Mexicans during the first four months of fiscal 2019. Border agents detained 607,000 Central Americans and 166,000 Mexicans in 2019.
Prior to 2006, homicides in Mexico hovered below 15,000 nationwide, peaking at 14,619 in 1999. But when then-President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, he deployed the military to fight the cartels, which sent decreasing homicide rates soaring once again. By the time he left office six years later, murders had climbed to 21,459 in 2012.
After taking office in Mexico in 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador laid out long- and short-term plans to tackle the country’s problems with violence. The couple took a flight north and ended up in Nogales, Mexico, just south of the Arizona border, where other relatives had successfully crossed before.
Robledo Ramirez said she knows one thing only: “We left because we were afraid, so I don’t plan on going back.”León Fernando Ruiz Beltrán, 18, is staying at the same shelter as Robledo Ramirez, along with his parents and two younger siblings. “There are three clear tendencies,” for why they migrate, said the Rev. Hector Trejo. “Among the Mexicans, violence is the top reason. The second is economic necessity. And the third is the lack of employment opportunities. Often it’s a combination of the three but one reason always prevails.”U.S. officials are keenly aware of the economic challenges in Mexico and their potential to push people north.
By contrast, the U.S. economy has seen uninterrupted growth for nearly a decade, with unemployment now at a low 3.6%. U.S. asylum officers make their determinations independent of each other, yielding mixed results from a single claim. While Valeria and six other family members were deported despite the threats she faced directly, asylum officers released four of her family members, including two grandchildren, into the U.S. They headed for Ohio, where relatives took them in.Other Mexican migrants are taking greater risks to illegally enter the U.S.
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