Officials in Mexico say they expected a spike in mass migration in 2021 due to the impact of natural disasters, failed economies, and the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Natural disasters, economic turmoil, and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic during 2020 pointed to a spike in mass migration, Mexican officials said last week. That new wave of migration has begun and is expected to continue despite efforts to stop illegal crossings on Mexico’s southern border.
Last week, the head of Mexico’s Human Rights Commission, Nashieli Ramirez Hernandez, revealed they had been monitoring conditions in Central and South American. They expected an increase in the migratory flow not in large caravans, but in smaller groups. The increase in migratory movement, according to Ramirez, is tied to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The commissioner also pointed to reports of increased activity along human trafficking routes and more operations by human smugglers.
“We are expecting an increase in the migration flow,” Ramirez said during a conference where she published a report regarding migrant protection and complaints of abuses. “Not long ago there was a caravan coming from Honduras that tried to reach the country. While that one was stopped, there is a latent topic there and people will continue to arrive.”
The statements made by Ramirez come just one month after one of Mexico’s top government officials — Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, the current Human Rights Secretary — warned about the effect of the pandemic and a series of hurricanes that tore through Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. At the time, Encinas called for Mexico to plan ahead to be able to create the proper strategies to deal with the influx in a humane fashion.
“We are certain that we are going to face new challenges in migration flows in the region in the coming months,” he said.
One topic that Mexico’s federal government has not officially covered or discussed is the perception of a lax immigration approach by the U.S. government under President Joe Biden. The current president’s policies represent a stark contrast from those of former President Donald Trump.
In the state of Nuevo Leon, a spokesman for the Public Security Secretariat revealed to Breitbart Texas that authorities rescued 171 Central American migrants in several human smuggling and trafficking cases in recent weeks. The groups included 139 adults and 32 children. The state official claimed the figures point to an increase in the use of “coyotes” (human smugglers) that have ties to organized crime.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.