Many Haitians want to stay in Mexico

In light of the deportation of many Haitians from the United States, thousands of immigrants are now trying to obtain papers in Mexico. Long queues formed on Friday in Tapachula in the south, Monterrey in the north and in the capital, Mexico City. The refugees waited in front of the offices of the Mexican Refugee Aid Commission (Kumar).

“After I saw what happened at the American border, I don’t want to go there anymore. I want to live here in Mexico,” 27-year-old Haitian Marcius Markinson told dpa in Tapachula.

“But we need papers to be able to work. The money is running out. I sleep on the street.”

The United States has flown thousands of Haitians to Port-au-Prince this week. Before that, nearly 15,000 Haitians had camped under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio. There was outrage that US border guards on horseback were rounding up Haitian immigrants on the border river. US President Joe Biden described the process as a scandal.

Many Haitians now want to stay in Mexico for the time being, work and wait until the situation at the US border calms down. “I want to go to the United States, but if I can get papers, I will work in Mexico for two or three years,” another Haitian said in Tapachula.

Most Haitians came to Mexico via South and Central America. Some lived in Brazil or Chile for years before making their way to the United States.

Between January and August of this year, 77,559 asylum applications were submitted in Mexico. However, the processing takes a long time, as Mexican authorities can only process about 5,000 applications per month. The UN refugee agency has called for alternatives for migrants, who often do not have the right to asylum.