Irregular migration intercepted by Mexico has tripled in the first quarter of the year to almost 360,000 people in the midst of growing operations, although the Government affirms that the migratory flow has decreased.

The Mexican authorities detected 359,697 “people in irregular immigration status” between January and March 2024, an increase of 199.68% compared to 120,029 in the same period in 2023, according to the statistics available this Saturday from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

In just three months, the Government of Mexico has intercepted almost half, 46%, of the record of 782,176 irregular migrants it detected in all of 2023, when this flow rose by 77% annually.

The main country of origin of migrants is Venezuela, with 89,718 registered, almost one in four of the total, 24.94%.

It is followed by Honduras (37,323), Ecuador (36,956), Guatemala (36,934), Colombia (21,534), Nicaragua (18,711), El Salvador (17,720), Haiti (16,791) and Cuba (10,464).

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The figures are disseminated after a joint statement by the presidents of the United States, Joe Biden, and Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who agreed to “work together to immediately implement concrete measures in order to significantly reduce irregular border crossings.”

As a achievement, López Obrador said last Thursday that the capture of undocumented people have fallen by more than 50% on the border with the United States, which reported about 12,000 daily in December and in April it fell to an average of 5,812.

The tension over migration has increased this year because the presidential elections of Mexico and the United States coincide, but the Mexican president denied that he tightens controls due to pressure from the United States.

“No, it’s just that I don’t let myself be pressured by anyone, Mexico is an independent country and the president of Mexico acts freely, he is not a scoundrel of any foreign government,” he said.

Tapachula, the largest city on the southern border of Mexico, still suffers from the phenomenon, although some activists point out that the number of migrants on the streets has decreased.

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Gerver Bermúdez, administrator of the Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter in Tapachula, considered that the presence of foreigners has decreased, but they have not stopped arriving in the city, where they are four or five days and follow their route because the authorities are not giving them transit permits.

“The shelter is always full and the goal is to support everyone who comes as an immigrant. We have handled between 800 and 900 people of different nationalities such as Hondurans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Ecuadorians,” he told EFE.

On the other hand, Cecilia Izaguirre, human rights defender in Tapachula, stressed that the presence of so many foreigners is no longer very visible.

“People no longer stay in Tapachula, because they came to be here to do their Comar procedure (Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid), but now they are passing by, it has decreased a little, but it has not stopped or has not decreased by a large number,” the activist said.

The Cuban Felipe Martínez, who works informally parking vehicles, explained that now the migrants “walk” from the southern border in the face of the action of the Mexican authorities.

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“They go by caravan because they delay the papers a little, they fall into a state of anxiety because they want to be established in one place with their relatives, they despair, emigrate and continue to look for new horizons,” said the migrant, who is waiting for the Comar to resolve his asylum application.

On the other hand, Jorge Cruz, a Honduran who is in the Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter, considered that migration remains normal because “a lot of them always arrive every day.”

“There is always, I see that there are more people who go up and up, it has not come down, a lot of people enter, a lot of people also enter the shelter, there are children and women, who are supported come and go,” he said.