Tijuana.- Tougher policies imposed by the United States and Mexico have paradoxically made the journey north for undocumented immigrants even more perilous and created new opportunities for corrupt authorities and organized criminals.
That's the conclusion of a new study released Tuesday by a leading Mexican research center, which called for a new law that effectively protects immigrants and a new drug-fighting policy that respects the human rights of society at large, including migrants.
The center is the latest voice to raise the alarm of what is happening to people trying to make their way to the United States, many planning to enter the country without authorization. This population includes men, women and even teens that travel the farthest to reach the U.S.-Mexico border, those from Central America.
For decades in Mexico, undocumented immigrants have been vulnerable to thieves, rapists and corrupt authorities eager to strip them of every cent they carry to start their new lives north of the border.
In the last year or so, the immigrants have faced far worse.
Last August, 72 migrants were murdered in the border state of Tamaulipas. Some 50 migrants from the state of Oaxaca were kidnapped in December.
Closer to home, in recent months authorities in Baja California have arrested bands of criminals who kidnapped immigrants and held them for ransom.
Based on the evidence, the trend is not a good one for immigrants, wrote the authors of the study, "Security Policies of Mexico and the Vulnerabilities of Migrants," released by the research center Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
Mexico has made it a priority to wage a war against drug traffickers, however, that focus has diverted attention from the creation of a new national policy that would protect the human rights of immigrants and improve their security, regardless of their nationality, the study said.
Mexico's Defense Department uses checkpoints near the border to detect drug traffickers and other criminals. However, in some cases the people who have been stopped, including migrants, have become victims of violence, extortion and other crimes at the hands of those running the traffic stops, according to the study.
"Neither stepped-up law enforcement in the country's interior and its borders nor the participation of the military and authorities from the various levels of government has led to a decrease in crime," the authors wrote.
The United States, for its part, has reinforced the border in many key places with additional personnel, layers of new fencing and lights and high-tech monitoring equipment.
Over the years, those tactics have pushed undocumented immigrants to try to cross in ever more treacherous territory.
And it is in these remote areas where criminals and Mexican authorities from all levels prey on migrants, violating their human rights, assaulting them, kidnapping them, and, on occasion, killing them, the study said.
"This relocation of the flow has made immigrants more vulnerable because it exposes them to organized groups of criminals and to high-risk conditions," wrote José María Ramos, one of the eight researchers who participated in the study.
The study called for a new law to protect immigrants and a retooled drug-fighting policy that respects the human rights of immigrants as well as of the general population.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
