Chiapas: First Depolyment of National Guard in Chiapas at Siglo XXI Migration Center

National Guard Photo @ La Jornada/Luis Castillo

On May 18th, the National Migration Institute (INM) announced that the newly formed National Guard will support “perimeter surveillance” tasks in the facilities of the Siglo XXI Migration Center, in Tapachula, Chiapas. According to the statement, the deployment will be temporary and the only access the National Guard has had to the migration center was “to set up a small kitchen in the maneuver yard and feed its members who provide this service to the INM.”

Aristegui News reports that, “a hundred elements of the Navy and the Military Police, heavily armed and with riot gear, installed a camp outside the migratory center, where migrants wait to regularize their legal stay in the country, or be deported.”

This decision was made by the authorities as in previous weeks there were six mutinies of “secured” migrants (since they are not considered detained by the authorities), who sought to escape from the facilities to avoid their deportation.

This act represents the first formal operation of the National Guard in the state of Chiapas. The controversial creation of this body has been strongly questioned by civil society and national and international human rights organizations. The All Rights for All Network (TDT in its Spanish acronym) notes that “the migration policy and the arrival of the military, follows a national security strategy where the rights of migrants are not respected.”

For more information in Spanish:

Migrantes, bajo vigilancia de Guardia Nacional en Chiapas (Aristegui Noticias, 20 de mayo de 2019)

Guardia Nacional vigilará Estación Migratoria Siglo XXI en Chiapas (La Jornada, 18 de mayo de 2019)

Para evitar ser deportados, 90 cubanos se fugan de estación migratoria en Chiapas (Aristegui Noticias, 5 de mayo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Nacional/Internacional: OSC presentan el “Informe del monitoreo de derechos humanos del éxodo centroamericano en el sureste mexicano: octubre 2018 – febrero 2019” (May 3, 2019)

National/International: CNDH Requests Special Measures for Migrants (May 8, 2019)

National/International: Contrasting Mexican and US Government Approaches to Central American Migration (April 2, 2019)

Nacional/Internacional: Secretaria de Gobernación se reúne con funcionarios del gobierno de Donald Trumpf para abordar el tema Migración (March5, 2019)

International/National: Registration of Humanitarian Visas for Migrants Closes (February 12, 2019)

Chiapas: Menores de edad no acompañados implica reto legal (January 30, 2019)

International/Mexico: Xenophobic Violence Erupts Against Migrants in Tecun Uman (February 1, 2019)