Mexican authorities had limited capacity to manage the country’s recent wave of Haitian migrants, who lived in dire conditions and struggled with the country’s immigration system, said a report published Thursday by an international refugee advocacy organization.
“The Mexican government responded to Haitian migration chaotically and without proper attention to human rights, protection, and integration,” concludes the 22-page report from Refugees International, “Today Haitians in Mexico remain in the shadows, lacking work and services.”
For the investigation, titled “Pushed into the Shadows: Mexico’s Reception of Haitian Migrants,” researchers examined Mexican policy from last summer onward and interviewed Haitian migrants who came to Mexico without documents and who sought some form of immigration relief. They also spoke to people representing non-profits and shelters as well as local immigration authorities and the United Nations.
What they found was that newly arrived Haitians in Mexico lacked sufficient immigration guidance and social support from local authorities — who could not handle the large flow of people and changed policies with little notice or clear communication. Local organizations struggled to meet the needs of the migrants, who experienced hostility and racism from the local communities and lived in harrowing conditions as they attempted to settle in Mexico or enter the United States through the southern border.
“Haitian migration through the Americas has been a long trajectory of neglect and discrimination, and Mexico was the most recent chapter,” said Rachel Schmidtke, Latin America advocate at Refugees International and co-author of the report.
Title 42 lifting soon, which may trigger more migration
The Refugees International report comes only weeks before the United States lifts Title 42, which has allowed U.S. officials to turn away immigrants, including asylum seekers, at the U.S.-Mexico border during the coronavirus pandemic. Title 42 received widespread attention last fall when approximately 15,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, showed up at the southwest land border. Haitians crossed the Rio Grande and camped under an international bridge in the Texas city of Del Rio, where they presented themselves at the U.S. border. American authorities used Title 42 to carry out mass deportation flights back to Haiti.
In less than a month, the pandemic policy will lift, and U.S. officials expect more immigrants to show up at the southern border. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security released a plan on how it plans to handle the influx, including boosting personnel numbers, streamlining processing and giving more resources to nonprofit organizations that help migrants.
Yael Schacher, Refugees International deputy director for the Americas and Europe and report co-author, said that she is more confident that DHS and partners could better handle the increase of immigrants seeking to come to the United States than last year’s Haitian border crisis. But she raised questions about one of the plan’s main pillars, which includes partnering with other nations, including Mexico, to deter irregular migration, stabilize the region and increase protections and legal pathways for migrants.
“What exactly does that mean for Mexico’s policy towards migrants? What is the U.S. going to push for?” said Schacher, “... I can’t emphasize how unclear it is what that means, and especially if it will mean any real change for Haitians on the ground in Mexico.”
Policies create chaos
Haitian migration to Mexico stretches back years to after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake near Port-au-Prince, the Refugees International researchers told the Miami Herald, with populations from the Caribbean country migrating to cities like Tijuana since 2016. But there are limited legal pathways for Haitians in Mexico, making it challenging for them to settle there long term.
“It’s difficult for Haitians to access asylum in the country, and there are few options to access any kind of documentation besides asylum or humanitarian visa. It is very difficult for them to be able to stay or find a dignified work or life in Mexico,” said Schmidtke.
Over the last year, the pair of Refugees International investigators said the deportation risk at the U.S. border, recent Mexican policies, and worsening conditions elsewhere had brought and kept large numbers of Haitians in Mexico. They tracked the journey of Haitians who traveled through Tapachula, a city near the southern Mexican border with Guatemala in the state of Chiapas, following up with them over a four-month period between December 2021 and March 2022 to get a sense of how they made migration decisions over time.
Thousands of Haitians traveled to Chiapas to present asylum and immigration claims in 2021. But the process was extremely challenging for Haitian migrants, Schmidtke and Schacher found: Appointments were hard to come by, authorities changed or shut down processing locations, and living conditions were poor. The city’s stadium became an appointment center and a makeshift camp where people slept outdoors with no drinking water. And people who applied for asylum in the southern state of Chiapas had to stay there until their cases were resolved, which hampered the movement of Haitian migrants through Mexico.
Late last year, the government kicked off a program that transported over 30,000 Haitian migrants to central and northern Mexican states. It had the purpose of “reducing the massive concentration of foreigners,” in Chiapas to offer them humanitarian visas and relieve resources, according to a press release from the Mexican government’s National Institute of Immigration.
But the Refugees International report found that the transfer program was disorganized. By the end of the investigation, interviewed migrants were living in northern Mexico or deported back to Haiti after crossing into the United States.
“The way it was done didn’t provide stability or direction. There were no resources for Haitians in central Mexico," said Schacher.
She added: “They were moving northward in a chaotic way, and then they were stuck in northern Mexico because of the fear of crossing the border and getting expelled to Haiti.”
Among those who did choose to cross the U.S. border, Haitians told the Miami Herald last fall that frustrations with the inability to find work and an inhospitable atmosphere in Mexico were among the reasons they were willing to risk getting sent back to Haiti.
“The treatment of the Mexican National guard and the National Institute of Immigration towards Haitians was very hostile and has been for years now,” said Schmidtke, “I think there is definitely a relationship between how Haitians are received in the country and why they want to go to the U.S. border.”
The report urged the Mexican government to evaluate whether Haitians should be evaluated for asylum under special international protocols, hire more Haitian translators, and boost work opportunities and legal pathways for Haitians. It also recommended that the United States government stop all Title 42 expulsions and that it prioritize the resettling of Haitians who come from countries in the Americas.
“Haitians are just searching for a place where they can finally land and be accepted and find a place where they can work and provide for their children. It just seems like for many of them it has been 10-plus years of just trying to find somewhere where they can call home, and they’ve been rejected at every turn,” said Schmidtke.
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