Asylum-Seekers Are Clamoring to Stay in Mexico in the Wake of US Election Kevin Lui - Time
go to original April 20, 2017

Asylum Applications in Mexico Have Unepected Surge (Wochit News)

The number of asylum applications received by Mexico has spiked by 150% in the months after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, while detentions at the southwestern U.S.-Mexico border fell slightly during the same period.

Between November and March, Mexico's refugee agency COMAR received 5,421 applications for asylum in total, 150% more than it did in the same period in 2015-16, Reuters reports, while noting that asylum applications had already been on the rise even before the election. Around 4% fewer detentions were reportedly made along the U.S. border in the southwest over the same time span.



Most of the asylum seekers were from the violence-ravaged Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, according to Reuters — but fewer of them are making the northbound journey into the U.S.

Just less than 15,000 Central Americans were detained by Mexican border agents in the first two months this year compared to the same period in 2016, reports the Guardian. Analysts suggest it's still too soon to determine if the Trump Administration's tough stance on immigration is the determining factor.

Read the rest at Time

Related: Some Migrants Are Rethinking the US as Their Ultimate Destination (PRI's The World)

Related: More Than 450,000 Migrants Cross Mexican Territory Annually (Prensa Latina)

Related: Mexico: Migration from and Through the Country Requires a State Policy (Mexico Voices)

Related: How the United States' Spat with Mexico Will Crush Central American Refugees (Amnesty International)

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