JOINT STATEMENT: Without protection in the Mexican southwest, migrant women and the LGBTIQ+ population
December 20, 2022
Organizations present a document on the findings on the journey to Chiapas and Oaxaca where the precarious situations they face were documented, without an official coordinated response.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- The organizations Apoyo a Migrantes Venezolanos, the Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA), the Institute for Women in Migration, AC (IMUMI) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) present the document "The consequences of the immigration policies of the United States and Mexico on the protection of Venezuelan women and LGBTIQ+ people in southwestern Mexico" , after touring Tapachula, Chiapas and San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca to document the conditions of the women and LGBTQI+ Venezuelan migrant population, after the implementation of different actions to stop migration, by the United States and Mexico, such as expulsions under Title 42 of the Venezuelan population, humanitarian parole, and the imposition of a visa on those of Venezuelan nationality, by the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
During a week of work, where migrant women and LGBTIQ+ people, international bodies, civil society organizations and some local government agencies were interviewed, it was possible to record that among the main challenges faced by women and people from the LGBTIQ+ community is access to asylum or some form of migratory regularization, mainly due to the lack of real and official information on the new migratory policies; the persecution by immigration authorities that end in arrests; long wait times -from 3 months to 2 years; family separation due to the impossibility of demonstrating direct links with children and adolescents; return flights to their country without information about what happens upon arrival or if their options for staying in Mexico were explained to them;
Between October 2021 and September 2022, there were 189,520 detentions of Venezuelans on the border between Mexico and the United States, an increase of 275.2 percent compared to the same period in 2021. In Mexico, through October 2022, Venezuelan detentions went from 4,360 in 2021 to 72,762. The records of those who crossed the Darién jungle through October 2022 went from 2,819 in 2021 to 148,285.
The document includes recommendations addressed to the governments of Mexico and the United States. The Mexican government is urged to: offer Visitor Cards for Humanitarian Reasons with authorization to work with a minimum validity of one year; end the strategy of installing service modules of the National Institute of Migration for the delivery of Multiple Migratory Forms in remote locations; Stop cooperating with the United States government in implementing policies like Title 42 that violate United States, Mexican, and international law; and eliminate immigration checks on the road according to the resolution of the Supreme Court of the Nation (275/2019).
While the US government is urged to: take all possible actions to end the Title 42 policy and restore access to asylum at the US-Mexico border; eliminate the requirement of a passport to apply to the parole program for Venezuelans, and increase the number of places available in the program; and work with international agencies and local organizations to increase information campaigns directed at the Venezuelan population about the parole program; among other recommendations.
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