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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 25 May 2022

Report: Mexico’s immigration enforcement relies on military

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex- ed that 190,000 migrants participating in the report
ico’s immigration enforce- had been presented to im- have brought lawsuits in
ment is increasingly milita- migration authorities. some of those cases.
rized with the armed forces Mexico had already been A particular problem has
and National Guard now moving toward increased been mobile checkpoints
accounting for more mi- reliance on the military, but along highways, something
grant detentions than im- it has accelerated under the Supreme Court just de-
migration agents, accord- President Andrés Manuel clared unconstitutional last
ing to a report published López Obrador, according week because they lead to
Tuesday by six nongovern- to the report. racial profiling.
mental organizations. Under pressure from then Last August, Defense Sec-
The human rights and mi- U.S. President Donald retary Luis Cresencio San-
grant advocacy groups, Trump in 2019, López Ob- doval said that the main
among them the Founda- rador deployed the newly objective for the Army,
tion for Justice and the created National Guard, a Navy and National Guard
Democratic State of Law, security force in theory civil- was “to stop all migration”
say that many of the de- ian, but in reality under mili- and “cover the northern Mexican National Guards stand watch over the Suchiate River
where locals transport cargo and ferry people between Mexico
tentions are also arbitrary, tary control. border, the southern bor- and Guatemala, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Friday, Jan. 24,
based on racial profiling At the time, nongovern- der with soldiers.” 2020, a location popular for Central American migrants to cross
and have led to abuses. mental organizations and U.S. Ambassador Ken Sala- from Guatemala to Mexico.
The armed forces are sup- the United Nations ex- zar said last week in a news Associated Press
posed to just be supporting pressed concerns that the conference that the focus
immigration agents in their shift to more militarized en- on Mexico’s southern bor- lems that we have now meters (186 miles) than the
work, but the organizations forcement would lead to der and in the narrow isth- about the migration flow,” entire U.S.-Mexico border
found that they are now re- abuses. Even the leadership mus just above it “were the noting that it was easier to spanning more than 3,000
sponsible for the majority of of the National Immigra- keys to resolving the prob- control a line of 300 kilo- kilometers (1,864 miles).q
detentions. tion Institute was changed,
Between June 2019 and replacing a sociologist
December 2020, the schooled in immigration,
armed forces and Nation- with the head of Mexico’s
al Guard detained more prisons. Military officers,
than 152,000 migrants just some retired, were named
at Mexico’s southern bor- to lead at least eight of the
der, according to public institute’s state offices. Mi-
information requests made grants of African origin and
by the Citizen Security Pro- women, in particular, have
gram at Iberoamericana been subject to abuses in-
University. cluding discrimination, ex-
During that same period tortion and sexual abuse,
the Interior ministry report- the report said. The groups
People in Brazil's Amazon

rainforest again reel from

floods

By EDMAR BARROS and FA- Nina phenomenon, when
BIANO MAISONNAVE Pacific Ocean currents af-
IRANDUBA, Brazil (AP) — For fect global climate pat-
the second straight year, terns, and which scientists
inhabitants of Brazil's Ama- say is intensified by climate
zon rainforest are being change.
overwhelmed by flooding, Manaus, the Amazon's
with hundreds of thousands largest city, began track-
of people already affected ing flood levels in 1902
by waters that are still rising. and has seen seven of its
Heavy rainfall in the Ama- worst floods over the past
zon over the past two years decade, including this
is associated with the La year's.q