Mexico reported Friday a reduction in the flow of people trying to reach the United States, hours after that country tightened restrictions against illegal migration. “The current is going down today. We have not had any confrontations or situations of violence at the border.”Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a news conference.

The United States lifted title 42 this Fridaya measure that was activated in 2020 to supposedly halt covid-19, but was in practice used nearly 2.8 million times to deport migrants by preventing them from applying for asylum. In his absence, Title 8 continues to apply, which, in addition to expelling those who enter without a visa or authorization, vetoing them to be granted asylum bans them from re-entering for five years and exposes them to legal proceedings.

During Ebrard’s speech, a sheet was presented stating that the National Migration Institute (INM) had instructed all of its offices “not grant multiple migration formats, nor any other document that allows transit through the country.” Those papers allowed migrants to move from southern Mexico to the northern border with the United States. The government has not specified since when this arrangement is in effect or ends.

However, an AFP official in the state of Chiapas verified that a center where these permits were issued in the town of Tapachula (on the border with Guatemala) was closed on Thursday. About a thousand people stood in line waiting for these documentswhen officials informed them that from now on they should seek refuge or resort to other mechanisms to arrange their stay in Mexico.

Months ago, the lack of permits made Tapachula a bottleneck for migrants from Latin America, as well as other nationalities, trying to make their way north.

What is Title 42 and how has it affected migration to the United States? The measure was used 2.8 million times to deport migrants

“Calm”

the US president, Joe Biden, had expected a “chaotic” situation at the border due to the end of Title 42, while his government has deployed some 24,000 agents in the area.

But referring to a Mexican army report, Ebrard assured that groups of migrants continued in the same numbers and in “calm and normal situations” on the border of Ciudad Juárez and Matamoros (north).

According to the magazine presented by Ebrard, The Mexican government counted 26,560 migrants in the main border towns in the north of the country. Of them, 10,000 in Ciudad Juárez, 7,000 in Reynosa and 5,500 in Matamoros. The rest is split between Tijuana, Nogales, Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña.

Prior to the repeal of Title 42, the INM announced the temporary closure of 33 immigrant detention centers across the country, with a capacity to house 1,306 people, arguing that it had no place to house them for the duration of a inspection by the ombudsman.

This audit was announced after the death of 40 migrants in the fire of one of those facilities in Ciudad Juárez, last March 27.

“Coyotes” lie

further, follow a “legal route”.a migrant can take advantage of family reunification programs, quota humanitarian permits for Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans, or process their applications before arriving at the border through the CBP One mobile application.

Ebrard said so “America is doing its part” because they have offered 360,000 humanitarian permits to those who carry out their documented process through the application.

The official reiterated that many migrants are tricked by “coyotes” or traffickers, assuring them that untitled 42 will make it easier to migrate. “If you do it through documentation, yes (…); If you arrive irregularly, it is more difficult and they will repatriate you,” he warned.