Organizations, communities, and leaders from South and Central America have demanded, through a joint letter addressed to the leaders of the United States and Mexico, the end of the current immigration policy, which, among other tragedies, caused the recent death of 39 migrants, mostly indigenous and people of color, after a fire broke out in an immigration detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Thus, 45 organizations, including those from civil society, education, migration and communication, joined the collective complaint against Joseph Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, demanding the closure of temporary stays and immigration stations in Mexico, as well as a radical change in immigration policy that bets on a perspective from Human Rights and not from the containment and detention of people in a context of mobility.
"We see with concern how the governments of Mexico and the United States are quick to disclaim all responsibility and blame the migrant population for the tragedy, when it is clear that the policies of both governments are responsible for the migratory context that we are witnessing today throughout the central and northern region of the continent," they state in the letter.
They also pointed out that, even before the "Stay in Mexico Program», multiple civil society organizations and human rights defenders had already pointed out the seriously risky conditions in which the migrant population finds itself within temporary stays and immigration stations, «which are nothing more than prisons».
In this regard, they recalled that at the last session of the Advisory Council on Migration Policy of the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, held days before the tragedy in Ciudad Juárez, organizations raised their voices and denounced the conditions of the immigration stations, while the National Institute of Migration presented a report highlighting progress in the process of "humanization" of these places.
In addition, some migrant shelters have denounced that the new online asylum application system in the United States, called CBP One, is being used as another pretext to return people who already have an appointment to the Mexico-Guatemala border, "perpetuating the strategy of contradiction and confusion during the regularization process that ends up violating the human rights of migrants."
"What happened at the National Migration Institute's Provisional Facility in Ciudad Juárez is proof that the complaints made repeatedly over the years have been ignored and is a consequence of the difficulties that the Institute itself poses for monitoring and observing the conditions and practices within these detention centers," the organizations and institutions stated in the letter addressed to the leaders.
Among the complaints, they stated that, before the fire at the immigration center in Ciudad Juárez, local organizations reported that personnel from the National Migration Institute (INM) were detaining and sending migrants to immigration stations, including people with residence and transit permits.
"It's not just the fire. It's not just the temporary shelter in Ciudad Juárez. It's the immigration policy of Mexico and the United States. It's the policy of the States towards a population that is forced to leave their communities due to adverse conditions caused by failed systems of government, environmental models and justice systems," they emphasize.
In response, they have called on all organizations, communities and citizens to express their rejection of the immigration policy of Mexico and the United States on Thursday, April 6, and to demand respect for the rights of victims and their families, as well as access to truth and justice.
As well as reparation for damages and a guarantee of non-repetition; an immediate halt to the practices of detention and deportation of migrants and asylum seekers; and the establishment of a working group with the participation of citizens, civil society, human rights defenders, academia and migrants with the aim of redesigning regional migration policy.
"The only way to honour the victims of this tragedy is to fully transform this policy and the model for managing human mobility," they said.
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