How Mexico is helping Biden and Harris at the US border

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — As U.S. border detentions plummet to their lowest level in four years, everyone is looking for credit.

Democrats point to President Joe Biden’s tougher asylum policy. Republicans point to Gov. Greg Abbott’s barbed wire fences on the border with Texas.

But the main reason for the decline lies 800 miles south of the border, in this sleepy, palm-shaded town closer to Guatemala than the United States. Here, sleek white government buses arrive, one after another, to unload groups of bewildered migrants.

Foreigners have been stopped at highway checkpoints or dragged off buses and trains, caught in a giant dragnet set by Mexico under pressure from the United States. But the government can’t afford to expel them. So it sends them back here, to southern Mexico, where many simply turn around and head back north.

The authorities call it “El Carrusel”, the merry-go-round.

The tactic is not entirely new, but it is being used more aggressively than ever before. Since the beginning of the year, the Mexican government has bused about 10,000 migrants a month south, roughly double the number from last year, according to official data obtained by migrant activist Gretchen Kuhner. Thousands more captured migrants are being put on planes or minibuses for the journey.

Senior U.S. officials and migrant advocates say the operation is a major factor in a dramatic drop in U.S. border arrests, down 77% since December.

But it is unclear whether these results will last. The number of migrants camping in Mexican cities is on the rise. Migrant rights advocates and aid workers worry about the human toll.

“I call this the politics of exhausting people,” said Eunice Rendón, director of the nonprofit Agenda Migrante.

María Rosa Barrios, 33, a Venezuelan radiology technician, is stuck on the carousel. She entered Mexico with her partner and their three sons in February. They are now in a migrant shelter in Villahermosa. “This is the fourth time we’ve tried to go north,” she says.

The family was first detained by immigration agents outside the northern city of Monterrey in March and taken by bus to the southern state of Chiapas. In May, they were ordered off a train near Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, and sent back again. In August, they were arrested just hours after leaving Chiapas.

Barrios’ dyed blond hair is now black. She has lost two pants sizes from lack of food. Her skin, once the color of almond milk, is now rough and tanned by the sun.

She goes around in circles.

“Sometimes I wonder why I made this decision?” she said. Tears welled up in her eyes. “But I have to keep going, help my parents, help my children.”

Mexico triples migrant detentions

Mexico launched the crackdown just after Secretary of State Antony Blinken led a delegation to Mexico City in December. Record numbers of migrants were reaching the U.S. southern border and Republicans were attacking Biden over the issue ahead of the presidential election. Blinken has been pressuring President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to step up the crackdown, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

Mexico’s migration agency has been making a major effort. Aided by the military, agents have added checkpoints on highways and stepped up searches on trains and buses. In the first half of 2024, Mexico recorded 712,226 arrests, nearly triple the number recorded in the same period last year.

Mexico couldn’t deport that many people. It wasn’t just a question of money. The Supreme Court had ruled that migrants could only be detained for 36 hours, not enough time to allow most of them to return home. So authorities dramatically stepped up their program of sending them to towns near the Guatemalan border.

The carousel is just one of the government’s tactics. Authorities have also restricted access to humanitarian visas, which many migrants applied for under the guise of seeking asylum in Mexico but were actually using to get to the U.S. border. Authorities have pressured rail operators to prevent migrants from boarding freight trains.

Those arrested are sent to cities in the south, often ill-equipped to accommodate them. Villahermosa’s only migrant shelter, known as Amparito, is hosting twice as many migrants as it did a year ago. When the 60 beds in its dormitories are full, staff pile mattresses into the main meeting room and children’s play area.

“An infrastructure of 60, 90, 100 beds is not at all sufficient for the number of people who come,” said director Karina Vidal.

Mexican policy leaves migrants in a state of ‘helplessness’

Barrios’ case shows why migrants continue to make the same journey two, three or four times to cross Mexico and reach the United States.

The economy of his native Venezuela had collapsed, the result of mismanagement by the socialist government and U.S. sanctions. Nearly 8 million people had fled. Barrios and his partner, Mario, a taxi driver, were struggling to make ends meet. And they were increasingly worried about their 9-year-old son, Christian.

At the shelter, Barrios saw Cristian go play with his 4-year-old brother. They were the same size. “The treatment he needs is very expensive,” she said. There was no way to earn enough money in Venezuela to deal with his growth disorder.

Barrios left Venezuela in January with his Bible and “a suitcase full of dreams.” The family walked across the dangerous Darién Gap, a 60-mile stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama, before reaching Mexico by bus and on foot.

Eight months later, they are broke. Like other migrants who gather at traffic lights or on street corners in Villahermosa, the family sells lollipops or begs for change outside convenience stores. They are often reduced to sleeping on the streets.

“We use our shoes as pillows,” Barrios explains.

She has adopted a determined and joyful attitude. She cannot return to Venezuela, she has sold her house. And she thinks that other Venezuelans have managed to settle in the United States. Why not them? She makes her children live stories of life in America.

“They ask me, ‘Mom, when will we get to this beautiful country? When will you take me to Disney?'” Barrios says.

Analysts say the merry-go-round subjects vulnerable people to horrific living conditions, including kidnapping and robbery by criminal groups. Many migrants are fleeing life-threatening violence or economic collapse in their home countries, said Tonatiuh Guillén, a former director of Mexico’s migration agency. “These are not the migrants of a few years ago.”

Mexico denies any cruelty. In 2023, it accepted a record 140,000 asylum applications under its own program. But that number has plummeted this year as authorities try to crack down on abuses. Aid workers worry that the system will become harder to access.

Biden also takes steps to control migration

Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, has watched the number of detentions at the U.S. border decline. “I keep saying this is not sustainable,” he said. “And then they keep it going.”

It’s not just the Mexican game. The Biden administration has steadily tightened penalties for asylum seekers who arrive illegally. Texas officials claim credit for Operation Lone Star, a three-year-old program that fortified the border with barbed wire, the National Guard and police. Analysts note, however, that other states have seen similar declines in border crossings without such measures.

Some migrants may have postponed their journeys because of the slowing U.S. job market or an effort by Panama to reduce traffic through the Darien.

“This is all happening at the same time,” Selee said. “It may have created enough reinforcing factors to keep the numbers down for a while.”

The Mexican government is hoping that the combination of U.S. policies and its own enforcement measures will transform the dynamics at the U.S. border. About 75,000 migrants a month now enter the United States through legal channels, many using an app called CBP One to schedule appointments for asylum interviews.

Washington recently made the app available to southern Mexican states bordering Guatemala, as well as central and northern states. Mexico has promised to begin transporting people from the south who have an appointment at the border with the United States. “We believe that ensuring safe migration is part of our job,” Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said.

But only 1,450 appointments are available each day through CBP One, far fewer than the number of migrants seeking them. Many people struggle for weeks to get an appointment through the app — and when they do, it’s often months later, forcing them to wait in Mexico.

Other factors could derail efforts to limit arrivals at the border. Smugglers often find ways to circumvent control measures. A new wave of Venezuelans could reach the United States following last July’s presidential election, which was widely denounced as fraudulent.

“It’s not easy,” Barrios said. “But it’s not impossible either.”

Video: The Mexican government regularly buses immigrants to southern states before they can reach the U.S. border.

Valentina Muñoz Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post.