Yesterday, at the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro, the Interparliamentary Meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean: Building a Migrant Agenda was inaugurated. During her intervention, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcela Guerra Castillo, welcomed parliamentarians from Costa Rica, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Suriname, Paraguay, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Argentina, as well as representatives from the Central American Parliament, the Mercosur Parliament, and the Andean Parliament.
The event takes place on April 16 and 17 and involves the participation of countries that are part of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Migration Program, as well as other United Nations agencies.
The congresswoman mentioned the 325 migrants registered as deceased or missing from January to August 2023 during their attempt to cross the country's northern border. She emphasized the need to guarantee safe and orderly migration, as well as to respect human rights. She condemned xenophobic stances and those that criminalize migrant populations, as some states in the United States do, particularly pointing out Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
She invited countries to combat racism and the stigmatization of migrant individuals, as well as to respect each country's sovereignty in implementing migration policies.
Despite this, she said, there is a good relationship and collaboration with the neighboring country in terms of trade, although "irritants" arise at the border concerning the flow of irregular migrants in one direction and weapons in the other. She reminded that in Mexico, there is not the same ease for the acquisition and carrying of firearms as in the United States, which has led to American weapons being trafficked into this country and ending up in the hands of organized crime.
She also presented the progress that Mexico has made in terms of respecting the human rights of migrant individuals and detailed the components of the country's migration policy. The first of these, she said, is shared responsibility; secondly, regular, orderly, and "non-criminalizable" international mobility and migration; third, attention to irregular migration; fourth, institutional strengthening; fifth, the protection of nationals abroad; sixth, the integration of individuals in international migration contexts; and seventh, sustainable development.
Additionally, she emphasized the authority of the Chamber of Deputies, and other parliaments in the region, to allocate the resources required to address migration challenges, as well as to oversee the implementation of this through concrete actions to achieve the stated objectives.
On her part, Dana Graber, the Chief of Mission and representative of the IOM in Mexico, highlighted the commitment of the IOM to promote safe, orderly, and regular migration, as well as to protect human rights. Promoting regular pathways for migrants is one of the three priorities that are part of the agency's global strategic plan, she commented.
Likewise, she emphasized the fundamental role and importance of the legislative branch in promoting sustainable migration policies in the short, medium, and long term. She pointed out that in 2023, twice as many people crossed the Darien Gap compared to 2022, so she acknowledged the increase in the phenomenon in the region. She invited authorities from countries to develop more inclusive and humanistic migration policies and to collaborate among nations to address common challenges in migration matters and "address the underlying causes of migration."
In her turn, the President of the Steering Committee of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries and of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (GRULAC-IPU), Congresswoman Sofía Carvajal Isunza, stated that Mexico has become an important transit and destination country for migrant individuals. She also emphasized the importance of collaboration among countries in the region and, above all, of the implementation in the parliaments of each of the international frameworks that have been constructed at the international level.
Congresswoman Elvia Yolanda Martínez mentioned that Mexico has eleven migrant congress seats for the first time. These Mexican citizens living abroad have promoted the agenda of the Mexican community abroad. Although she acknowledged that it is essential to have resources to address the needs of migrant individuals, "without a budget, we cannot do anything, and we fight for our human rights to be respected," she said.