Migration stretch from Central America to the border between Mexico and the United States

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course

The migration trek from Central America to the border between Mexico and the United States was from October 2018 train of several thousand migrants from Central American countries such as El Salvador , Guatemala and Honduras , resulting in marches km above up to 2000 far through Mexico toward the US -american external border moving. In mid-November 2018, at least 2,000 of them arrived in the Mexican border town of Tijuana . The trek received worldwide media attention, as did the reactions of the US government and US President Donald Trump . The US moved several thousand soldiers to the Mexican border and finally in mid-July 2019 largely overruled the asylum law with which the migrants had entered the US.

Background, prehistory

Escape and migration of large numbers of people from South America via Mexico to the USA have been the order of the day for decades. 2017 e.g. For example, at least 400,000 people embarked on this path, but usually individually or in smaller groups. Economic motives and the crime prevailing in these countries are cited as the root cause of migration .

The trigger for growing into a trek in October 2018 was a group of 160 migrants from Honduras organized by activists via social media. Many others were then attracted by further media coverage. The trek with some whole families were even by the parties as a " caravan titled" The greater amount offer go protection from violence , sexual assaults and robberies , and increase, the hope of the refugees, the prospect of inclusion in the United States .

A migration “caravan” from Central America, initiated by the Mexican aid organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras , had already attracted attention in the USA in April 2018 when US President Trump and members of his cabinet described the victims as a “threat to national security” . In early May, these migrants applied for asylum in the US border city of San Diego after their last leg of their journey through Mexico .

course

October 2018

Migrants cross the border between Guatemala and Mexico on October 29, 2018

According to press reports, a large procession formed in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula in the second week of October 2018 . In the following week, the trek in Guatemala grew to 2,000 people who moved on foot or by hitchhiking . People from El Salvador also joined. During the third week of October 2018, the trek grew to over 7,000 people, according to the Mexican daily El Universal ; in addition, another 1,500 to 3,000 people from Honduras made their way to Mexico and the USA.

On October 19, one of the "caravans" on the Guatemalan-Mexican border tore down the border fence after a short pause, only to be stopped by a police and border blockade at the border crossing over the Río Suchiate , whereupon hundreds of people fleeing through the river waded.

At the end of the third week of October, a group of 7,000 people, also according to UN estimates, took a break in the southern Mexican city of Huixtla , about 1,600 km and about another four weeks' walk from the Mexican-American border. She also set up a temporary camp there for medical care. The refugees received food and clothing from locals. Basic democratic general assemblies were established in the caravan . On October 26th, after their abandonment of the project, around 150 people were brought back to Honduras in a police plane; previously, the government of President Juan Orlando Hernández had promised social programs.

On October 27, the Mexican police blocked the highway between the national states of Chiapas and Oaxaca on a bridge, thereby stopping the train for the time being. This was also done in order to bring the President's offer closer to the migrants: Six weeks before the end of his term in office, the Mexican President Peña Nieto offered the migrants for the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca z. B. Access to education, national health care, temporary work permits and identification papers after applying for residency and asylum in Mexico. Chiapas and Oaxaca are among the Mexican states with the highest levels of unemployment and poverty. Leaders of the migrants rejected this offer for fear of subsequent deportation: they wanted to continue to the USA, where many family members. Among other things, following the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission, the police finally lifted the blockade of the bridge.

According to Pueblo Sin Fronteras , the number of one convoy had been reduced to around 4,000 people in the Mexican state of Oaxaca by early November . Approx. 1700 would have decided to stay in Mexico, many decided to travel home. At the end of October, the Mexican interior minister spoke of around 2,300 people who had applied for a residence permit in the country, at the beginning of November of 3,230; meanwhile there was also talk of three "caravans". The mood in Mexico regarding migrants has become increasingly negative. More than 100 migrants, the majority of whom were minors, were abducted en route by the Zetas cartel , allegedly into human trafficking .

November: Arrival in Tijuana

In mid-November 2018, the first migrants reached the border with the USA near Tijuana . Soon about 2000 people arrived in the Mexican border town; they were seen as the vanguard of around 5000 to 10,000 other migrants. At that time, over 6,000 people in the Tijuana area had already applied to the US authorities for an appointment to file an asylum application.

The following weekend around 1000 people demonstrated against the migrants with nationalist slogans in Tijuana. Since tens of thousands of Americans a week a. Coming into town for cheap purchases, it was feared that the US authorities would close the border repeatedly threatened by US President Trump. Tijuana's mayor had previously defamed the migrants by speaking of " stoners and lazy people" among them. Refugee helpers in Tijuana accused Pueblo Sin Fronteras of leading the caravan to the border, but of having stolen from responsibility when things stopped going there. In the booming city of Tijuana, the state opened a job exchange, which is also aimed at migrants and (November 2018) made around 7,000 job offers.

Further developments

By early December, around 7,000 people had reached the US border. From the end of November, in December and in January groups of 150, over 400 and up to 1000 migrants tried to cross the border to the USA on various occasions. The US Border Patrol pushed them back or took them into custody. She also used tear gas .

The US Department of Homeland Security and the Mexican State Department announced in mid-December that migrants would have to wait in Mexico for their asylum applications to be processed. From the point of view of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, this is a temporary agreement.

A returnees program financed by the US State Department, under which the International Organization for Migration has been offering the return of participants on the migration route to their home countries since November 4, 2018, was used by 453 people by November 30.

After various non-governmental organizations initially successfully sued the government's practice of sending asylum seekers to Mexico pending a decision on their applications in a court in San Francisco , the US government won the right to suspend this practice in a federal appeals court in early May 2019 to proceed to a final decision.

Reactions

U.S. government

In mid-October , US President Trump tweeted that he would cut or cut funding for the Central American states of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador because they were unable to prevent people from illegally entering the USA: The USA had been in place since 2014 Aid amounting to 2.6 billion US dollars was made available for 2019 for programs to strengthen security and human rights , for building democracy and for economic and social development. B. in Honduras planned for 65.7 million US dollars.

Trump initially categorically excluded immigrants from entering the USA : He rumored that Middle East terrorists and other “dark figures” had mixed in with the migrants, but later had to admit that he had no evidence of this ( “ fake news ” ). On October 27, Trump described the trek via Twitter as a “national emergency” for the USA. His tweets and media coverage could have had a triggering role in the attack in Pittsburgh , in which a lone perpetrator shot eleven people and injured six in the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27 . Hours before the attack, the perpetrator is said to have made the following contribution to the short message service Gab : I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in ("I can't sit around and watch my people get slaughtered. Fuck the image, I'll go in").

At the end of the fourth week of October, the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced the dispatch of 800 US soldiers to provide logistical support for the border guards on the US border with Mexico; over 2000 members of the US National Guard had been there since April. The US military installed concrete barriers on the border with Mexico. The Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen warned the migrants against illegal border crossings.

A week before the midterm elections in the United States ( midterm elections ) announced the United States on the last weekend in October "to prevent an invasion of" sending more 5200 soldiers to the Mexican border; then President Trump the establishment of "very beautiful" tent cities by the US military for the asylum seekers, where they should wait until their asylum applications have been examined. Trump also expressed his will to increase the number of US troops to be relocated to the US southern border to 15,000. At the beginning of November, Trump threatened the US military with the use of firearms in response to any stone throwing by the refugees. However, according to the Posse Comitatus Act, the US military is not allowed to perform domestic border protection or police duties.

After the midterms , at the end of the first week of November , Trump issued a decree to tighten the American asylum rules, according to which asylum applications from Mexico to the USA were initially only allowed to submit at an official border crossing for ninety days; Asylum requests from illegal immigrants should no longer be processed. In doing so, he revised his initial statement that categorically no immigrants on the trek would enter the United States, a statement that clashed with United States law, which has enshrined the goals of the international agreement on the status of refugees since 1980 , including the guarantee that every asylum application is examined. A judge in California made it clear that this right also applies in principle to people who cross the borders of the United States without entry documents and without permission.

In mid-November, around 5,600 soldiers were deployed, including around 2,800 in the US state of Texas , 1,500 in Arizona and 1,300 in California , the largest military operation on the US southern border since the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visited the US troops relocated to the border region.

The attempt of the Trump administration to reduce the migration pressure on the US southern border through so-called safe third country regulations with countries south of the US failed at the beginning of July 2019 when Guatemala withdrew from the negotiations. Two days later, the US government announced a change to the asylum law, according to which from July 15, 2019, only people can apply for asylum who cannot reach the USA from a transit country. The new rule would affect almost any applicant who is not a Mexican citizen. Migrant Rights Groups announced legal action against the regulation.

Ibero America Summit

On the XXVI. At the Ibero-America summit in Antigua Guatemala in mid-November 2018 , the heads of state and government expressed concern about the current regional migration flows, and more must be done to preventive measures.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Refugees in Mexico - Hope drives them . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 31, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Die Zeit, Here is Still Dreaming , October 30, 2018.
  3. ↑ Refugees on their way to the USA: US President announces military operation on Mexico's border . In: Spiegel Online . October 25, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/kevin.sieff , https://www.facebook.com/josh.partlow1 : How the migrant caravan became so big and why it's continuing to grow. In: washingtonpost.com. Washington Post, accessed December 3, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c Migration: Trump threatens Central America with stopping financial aid . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  6. ↑ a b c Mexico - Thousands of migrants move on to the USA . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  7. ↑ a b c Refugee convoy from Central America: Trump refuses to accept thousands of migrants . In: Spiegel Online . October 24, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 1, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Migration: To the USA, no matter how . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 1, 2018]).
  9. ^ A b Mexican border region: Refugees cross the border between Guatemala and Mexico . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 1, 2018]).
  10. ↑ On the way to the USA: Thousands of migrants storm the border to Mexico . In: Spiegel Online . October 19, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  11. ↑ a b Migration in Central America: Refugees wade through the border river - Trump sends thousands of soldiers . In: Spiegel Online . October 29, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Mexico - Migrants on their way to the USA . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  13. ↑ a b c d Kathrin Zeise: Central America: The caravan of the hopeless . in: Blätter für deutsche und Internationale Politik 1/2019, pp. 29–32
  14. ↑ Klaus Ehringfeld: Mexico's reaction to the refugee crisis: Overrun and overwhelmed . In: Spiegel Online . October 20, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  15. ↑ a b Mexico - migrants stopped by police . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  16. ^ Refugee caravan : Mexico offers help to migrants from Central America . In: Spiegel Online . October 27, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Mexico: Migrants from Central America continue their march . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 1, 2018]).
  18. ↑ Mexican border region: 2,000 refugees on their way back to Honduras . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  19. ↑ a b Refugees - Trump wants to send up to 15,000 soldiers to the Mexican border . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on November 1, 2018]).
  20. ^ Badische Zeitung: Thousands of Central Americans apply for asylum in Mexico - hot spots - Badische Zeitung . ( badzische-zeitung.de [accessed on November 11, 2018]).
  21. ↑ 100 people 'kidnapped' from migrant caravan by drug cartels in Mexico , The Daily Telegraph on November 6, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2019
  22. ↑ Migrants from Central America climb the border fence to the USA.
  23. ↑ a b Mexico: Refugee train comes to a standstill shortly before the US border . In: Spiegel Online . November 17, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 17, 2018]).
  24. ^ A b Badische Zeitung: In Tijuana the anger against the migrants - abroad - Badische Zeitung is growing . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed on November 21, 2018]).
  25. ↑ Badische Zeitung: Migrant caravan comes to a standstill shortly before the US border - hot spots - Badische Zeitung . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed on November 17, 2018]).
  26. ↑ The failed plan of the migrants and their helpers. Die Welt, November 28, 2018.
  27. ↑ Migration deal with Mexico - "The USA is very much overwhelmed" , SRF News on December 27, accessed on January 2, 2019
  28. ↑ Die Welt: US border officials use tear gas against migrants , accessed on January 2, 2019
  29. ↑ Over 400 refugees from caravan arrested after crossing the fence at the US-Mexico border on December 5, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2019
  30. ↑ USA uses tear gas against refugees on the border with Mexico , suedostschweiz.ch on January 2, 2019, accessed on January 2, 2019
  31. ↑ Mexico demands clarification from the USA about the use of tear gas against migrants , amerika21.de on January 9, 2019, accessed on January 10, 2019
  32. ^ Agreement with the USA; Migrants are supposed to wait in Mexico . tagesschau.de on December 20, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2019
  33. ↑ Joshua Partlow and Nick Miroff: "Deal with Mexico paves way for asylum overhaul at US border" Washingtonpost.com of November 24, 2018.
  34. ↑ Statement by Joel Millman unog.ch from 30 November 2018
  35. ↑ Brian Melley, Elliot balancing act: "Appeals court: Trump can make asylum seekers wait in Mexico" AP, Washington Post, May 8, 2019
  36. ↑ Migration: Donald Trump wants to cut aid to Central America countries . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  37. ↑ Donald J. Trump on Twitter . In: Twitter . ( twitter.com [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  38. ↑ Choice of Fate in America tachles , November 2, 2018.
  39. ^ Authorities name the 11 killed in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Mexico - Hundreds of US soldiers are supposed to go to the Mexican border . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  41. ↑ USA: Government sends troops to the Mexican border . In: Zeit Online . ( zeit.de [accessed on November 1, 2018]).
  42. ↑ a b c Mexico - Refugees storm the police barriers . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  43. ^ Refugee convoy in Mexico: Pentagon sends soldiers to the US border . In: Spiegel Online . October 25, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  44. ↑ "Migrant Caravan": US Secretary of Homeland Security builds on deterrence . In: Spiegel Online . October 28, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 17, 2018]).
  45. ↑ Migration from Central America: Trump wants to build “tent cities” for asylum seekers . In: Spiegel Online . October 30, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 30, 2018]).
  46. ↑ Donald Trump's campaign topic - armament in the border area with Mexico . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed October 31, 2018]).
  47. ↑ Refugees - Trump threatens refugees with violence . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed November 2, 2018]).
  48. ↑ Migrants in the US election campaign - pure diversionary maneuver . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed November 2, 2018]).
  49. ^ A b c Badische Zeitung: Trump tightens the asylum rules - Abroad - Badische Zeitung . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed on November 11, 2018]).
  50. ↑ US Chief Justice Defends Justice. In: stuttgarter-zeitung.de . November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018 .
  51. ↑ Molly O'Toole: "Trump moves to eliminate nearly all asylum claims at US southern border" Latimes of July 15, 2019