A march has begun from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas northward to the central a part of the nation, in protest of insurance policies that make authorized immigration standing tough to attain.
Wednesday’s march set out from the border metropolis of Tapachula, close to Guatemala, and almost 300 migrants, asylum seekers and supporters took half.
However the demonstration was overshadowed by the arrest at some point earlier of one in every of its leaders, distinguished immigration activist Luis Garcia Villagran.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the arrest in her morning information convention on Wednesday. She alleged that Garcia Villagran had been detained for collaborating in human trafficking.
“That’s the crime,” she mentioned, including that Garcia Villagran was “not an activist”.
She added that an arrest warrant had been pending for the activist for years. However it was unclear why his arrest was carried out now.
The nonprofit Pueblo Sin Fronteras, nonetheless, disputed Sheinbaum’s characterisation of Garcia Villagran.
“The detention of Luis Villagran, director and human rights defender, is an unacceptable assault,” the nonprofit’s head, Irineo Mujica, wrote in a post to social media.
“Luis Villagrán’s solely ‘crime’ is to defend those that haven’t any cash or voice, and to inform the reality, which bothers the highly effective. Cease criminalising human rights defenders!”
Mujica – who was detained himself in 2019 on related fees, solely to be launched – argued that Garcia Villagran’s arrest was a political distraction.
“This can be a smokescreen: soiled and corrupt politics to cowl up the true networks of corruption,” he mentioned.
Mujica and Garcia Villagran have each been distinguished voices in a motion to make authorized immigration pathways extra accessible.
They’ve additionally been among the many organisers related to the development of the migrant “caravans” that journey from southern Mexico to america border in recent times.
A few of these previous caravans have concerned hundreds of individuals, lots of whom banded collectively for defense towards legal networks, corrupt officers and different threats they might face as they migrate.
Migration northwards, nonetheless, has slowed, notably since US President Donald Trump took workplace for a second time period in January.
Trump rapidly tried to bar asylum claims on the border, a transfer that has spurred a authorized backlash.
Final month, a courtroom blocked his asylum ban on the premise that it created an “different immigration system” with out deference to Congress’s legal guidelines.
However Trump’s insurance policies have nonetheless had a dampening impact on immigration on the border. In June, US Customs and Border Safety recorded solely 9,306 “encounters” with migrants and asylum seekers on the nation’s southern border – a virtually 93 p.c drop in contrast with the identical interval final yr.
Wednesday’s march had a special goal than these previous caravans, although, notably as migrants and asylum seekers flip away from the US and search different locations.
Organisers of the march sought to attract consideration to the sluggish processing time for asylum functions in Mexico and different hurdles to attaining authorized immigration standing.
It additionally served as an indication towards Mexican insurance policies which have sought to maintain undocumented migrants and asylum seekers within the south of the nation, away from the US border.
The Trump administration has pressured Mexico to crack down on immigration into the US, together with by the specter of tariffs.
Garcia Villagran’s arrest within the hours main as much as the march, nonetheless, left some migrants and asylum seekers frightened of collaborating within the march.
The information company AFP obtained one message that was circulating amongst individuals that learn, “Cover, don’t let yourselves get caught.”
A Catholic priest who took half in Wednesday’s march, Heyman Vazquez, instructed The Related Press information company that Garcia Villagran’s arrest was “unjust”.
He added that the arrest revealed a way of insecurity within the authorities over the query of migration. The answer, he defined, could be to make it simpler for migrants and asylum seekers to acquire authorized standing, thereby eradicating the necessity for such protests.
