Mexican authorities fire and sanction 1,040 immigration officers for corruption

Francisco Garduño, the head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute , said 1,040 immigration officers had been referred to the internal affairs office or forced to quit after they were caught demanding bribes and other acts of corruption .

Immigration head Francisco Garduño said that the current administration has put cameras in immigration offices, and they recorded some surprising acts, including extortion of migrants by officials.

According to the Immigration Minister, some officials charged immigrants up to MXN 300 for an appointment.

Garduño explained the majority of corrupt officials have since resigned. Many of them were caught extorting immigrants or sleeping.

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Slips for appointments at immigration offices were sometimes sold by agency employees when they should have been distributed for free, and some employees demanded bribes to accept visa or other applications. Others recommended informal assistants known as “coyotes” who charge for services rather than helping migrants solve their problems.

Garduño said the problem is being addressed, adding that migrants who come to Mexico by legal routes “deserve all our attention.”

The head of the National Immigration Institute (INM) said it reported the corruption cases to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and that it aims to improve immigration services for foreigners.

To end corruption at the institute, Garduño unveiled a digitalization plan to accelerate immigration processes.

In recent months, the migration institute came under fire for its treatment of immigrants.

In March, an NGO denounced a violent response to a protest organized by immigrants held at a detention center in Chiapas.

Dozens of migrants housed at Mexico’s largest detention center protested over fears they would contract COVID-19 at the facilities. According to advocates, the facilities were overcrowded and had poor sanitation.

During the protest, migrants were met with a violent crackdown by the country’s federal police and national guard, according to Mexican human rights groups.

On March 25, a coalition of local rights groups, the Collective for the Observation and Monitoring of Human Rights in Southeastern Mexico, denounced law enforcement’s response to the protest in the Siglo XXI detention center in the southern city of Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, saying they beat migrants and later transported them to an unknown location.

“We strongly condemn all acts of violence and disproportionate use of force against people, men, women, and teenagers in immigration detention,” the rights groups said in a statement.

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In 2019, detainees in Siglo XXI said they were being held in the facility near Mexico’s southern border for long periods without information about their cases, reported severe overcrowding, scarce water and food, and limited healthcare. The center has a long history of abuses recorded by groups including the Mexican government’s human rights ombudsman.

Previous protests at the facility have sometimes been rowdy, and security forces have defended their operations as a necessary force to restore order.

Now, as cases of COVID-19 increase in Mexico, concerns are mounting about how to prevent the spread of the disease among thousands of immigrants who remain in the country as a result of rigid U.S. immigration policies. Moreover, detention centers in Mexico are seen as particularly vulnerable.

“They don’t comply with minimum health standards even in the best of times,” said Daniel Berlin, a deputy director for rights group Asylum Access. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that people are extremely frightened.”

The conflict at Siglo XXI arose on March 23 when 50 to 70 migrants, mostly from Honduras and El Salvador, gathered to protest long detention times, the rights groups in southern Mexico said.

“People expressed fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus and announced their intention to start a hunger strike if they were not released,” the rights groups said. National Guard and INM officers deployed poles, water hoses, pepper spray, and tasers against migrants, according to the groups.

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