After turning a blind eye to illegal immigration passing through its nation and into the U.S. for years, Mexico is now deporting more Central Americans than the United States, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reports that from October to April, Mexico detained 92,889 Central Americans, compared to 70,226 largely Central American “other than Mexicans” the U.S. apprehended.
Compare that to last year, when a surge of successful illegal immigration to the U.S. by unaccompanied minors and family units overwhelmed government resources in the U.S. and resulted in a humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexico border.
From October 2013 to April 2014, as the AP reports, Mexico deported significantly fewer illegal immigrant Central Americans than the U.S. Compare Mexico’s 49,893 apprehended Central Americans to the 159,103 “other than Mexicans” the U.S. detained.
“The difference is Mexico’s new Southern Border Program, an initiative that included sending 5,000 federal police to the border with Guatemala and more border and highway checkpoints. Raids on migrants increased and authorities focused on keeping migrants off the northbound freight train known as ‘the Beast,’ on which many have suffered mutilation injuries,” the AP reports.
Mexico’s deportation process is also significantly easier than the lengthy deportation process employed in the U.S. — which can see Central American illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings for up to years.
According to the AP, Mexico’s process takes only as long as the length of time it takes for the illegal immigrant’s home country to verify their nationality.
In addition to the speedy deportations, Mexico also grants a tiny fraction of the asylum cases granted by the U.S.
Last year, for example 41,920 immigrants requested asylum, with the U.S. government approving 49 percent of the claims processed. In a nine month period in 2014 in Mexico, by comparison, 1,525 immigrants sought asylum while just 247 received it, according to the AP.