After a sharp decline in illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border, the numbers have started to increase again. The Trump administration is considering measures to stop the new influx of families and youths taking the dangerous journey to the border. Kausha Luna, CIS research associate, identifies the majority of these Central American migrants as economic migrants – a population not facing a credible fear of persecution and therefore not qualifying for asylum.
According to a report released by Fronteras at the beginning of March, the number of Mexicans seeking political asylum in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the last year. Fronteras, a multimedia collaboration of radio stations, compared the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration Courts Asylum Statistics from 2010 and 2011, finding an increase of 2,900 applicants as a result of the country's drug war violence.
Mexico's staggering drug-related violence, destruction, loss of lives, torture and insecurity has inadvertently created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who have well-founded fears of returning to Mexico because of these conditions. According to federal courts, the United Nations' Convention Against Torture is applicable to a Mexican fleeing drug violence. This class of people may be eligible for asylum and thus be on the path to U.S. citizenship.
