No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Militarization of Mexico's Border and its Impacts on Human Rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2023
Extract
Between 800,000 and one million people are estimated to traverse Mexico from Central America each year, endeavoring to reach the United States. These migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are forced north for a myriad of deeply personal reasons, but most commonly a combination of rampant crime and violence, economic insecurity, government failures, environmental forces, impacts from the global coronavirus pandemic, and, of course, a hope for a better life. Government policies that militarize migration control make the already daunting journey more dangerous. To that end, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has repeatedly voiced concern about policies that aim to militarize borders and their direct negative impact on human rights. But despite the corrosive effects on human rights, the militarization of national borders is increasing throughout the globe, and it is especially stark between “first world” and developing countries.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by International Association of Law Libraries
References
1 Amarela Varela Huerta, Feminicide, State-Perpetrated Violence and Economic Violence: An Analysis of The Perverse Reality Driving Central American Women's Migration.
2 Kevin Lapp, US Militarizing Borders in Central America, JURIST (May 7, 2021 10:00 AM). https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2021/05/kevin-lapp-us-militarizing-borders-in-central-america/
3 Organization of American States, IACHR Expresses Deep Concern about the Situation of Migrants and Refugees in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, OAS (July 23, 2019). https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2019/180.asp
4 Silva, Grant J., On The Militarization Of Borders And The Juridical Right To Exclude, 29 Public Affairs Quarterly 2, 217–234 (2015)Google Scholar. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44713988
5 Id.
6 Lapp, supra note 2.
7 Dunn, Timothy J. 1996. The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978–1992: Low-Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home. Austin: CMAS Books, University of Texas at Austin.
8 Lapp, supra note 2.
9 Varela Huerta, supra, note 1.
10 Id.
11 Id.
12 Id.
13 Global Detention Project, Mexico Migration Immigration Detention Profile, GLOBAL DETENTION PROJECT (Feb. 2021). https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/mexico
14 Id.
15 Id.
16 Id.
17 Kirk Semple & Paulina Villegas, Mexico Approves 60,000-Strong National Guard. Critics Call It More of the Same, N. Y. Times, (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/americas/mexico-amlo-national-guard.html
18 Id.
19 Amnesty International, Mexico's new National Guard is breaking its vow to respect human rights, AMNEST INTERNATIONAL (Nov. 8, 2020). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/mexicos-national-guard-breaking-vow-respect-human-rights/
20 Id.
21 Adriana Sletza Ortega Ramírez & Luis Miguel Morales Gámez, (In)seguridad, derechos y migración. La Guardia Nacional en operativos migratorios en México, SCIELO (2021). http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-21472021000100157
22 Id.
23 Id.
24 Julian Resendiz, AMLO reneged on campaign vow to return soldiers to barracks after failed drug war and now uses them to solve America's immigration crisis, experts say, BORDER REPORT (May 13, 2021). https://www.borderreport.com/regions/mexico/mexicos-use-of-soldiers-to-stem-migrant-flow-to-u-s-will-lead-to-abuse-experts-say/
25 Stephanie Brewer, Militarized Mexico: A Lost War that has not Brought Peace, WOLA, (May 12, 2021). https://www.wola.org/analysis/militarized-mexico-a-lost-war/
26 Id.
27 Kirk Semple, Mexico's National Guard, a ‘Work in Progress,’ Deployed to Curb Migration, N. Y. Times, (June 14, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/world/americas/mexico-migration-national-guard.html
28 Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, One Year after the U.S.-Mexico Agreement Reshaping Mexico's Migration Policies, (June 2020), at 5.
29 Id. at 1.
30 Department of State, U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration, (June 7, 2019). https://2017-2021.state.gov/u-s-mexico-joint-declaration/index.html
31 Semple, supra note 17.
32 Ruiz Soto, supra note 28, at 1.
33 Id.
34 Semple, supra note 17.
35 Id.
36 Id.
37 Resendiz, supra, note 24.
38 Id.
39 Id.
40 Id.
41 Kim Hjelmgaard, In news, when words fail, graphic and shocking photos often don't, USA TODAY (Jul. 2, 2019). https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/07/02/drowned-migrant-photo-oscar-alberto-martinez-ramirez-daughter-valeria/1595000001/
42 Resendiz, supra, note 24.
43 Alexandra Jaffe, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala deploy troops to lower migration, AP (Apr. 12, 2021). https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-honduras-mexico-immigration-border-patrols-917c0fea87c0a807b371da207d34c8cc
44 Lapp, supra note 2.
45 Jaffe, supra, note 43.
46 Mark Stevenson, Mexican President to Make National Guard Part of Army, MILITARY.COM (Jun. 16, 2021). https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/16/mexican-president-make-national-guard-part-of-army.html
47 Id.
48 Id.
49 Melissa Galván, La Guardia Nacional de AMLO: de cuerpo civil a formar parte de la Sedena, EXPANSIÓN POLÍTICA (Jun. 16, 2021) https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2021/06/16/voces-guardia-nacional-amlo-cuerpo-civil-a-formar-parte-de-sedena
50 Id.
51 Organization of American States, supra, note 3.
52 Id.
54 Organization of American States, supra, note 3.
55 Id.
56 Ramírez & Gámez, supra, note 21.
57 Organization of American States, IACHR Reminds Mexico of Its International Human Rights Commitments Concerning Citizen Security, OAS (Jul. 25, 2020). https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2020/178.asp
58 Brewer, supra, note 25.
59 Id.
60 Id.
61 Id.
62 Id.
63 Id.
64 Ruiz Soto, supra, note 28, at 1.
65 Laurent Faret, María Eugenia Anguiano Téllez, & Luz Helena Rodríguez-Tapia, Migration Management and Changes in Mobility Patterns in the North and Central American Region, SAGE JOURNALS (May 17, 2021). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23315024211008096
66 The White House, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, April 12, 2021 (Apr. 12, 2021). https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/04/12/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-april-12-2021/
67 Women's Refugee Commission, Stuck in Uncertainty and Exposed to Violence: The Impact of US and Mexican Migration Policies on Women Seeking Protection in 2021, WRC (Feb. 2, 2022). https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Stuck-in-Uncertainty-2.pdf
68 Id.
69 Ruiz Soto, supra note 28.
70 Brewer, supra, note 25.
71 Id.
72 Amnesty International, supra, note 19.
73 Congressional Research Service, Mexico: Background and U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service (Mar. 21, 2022) https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R42917.pdf
74 Amnesty International, supra, note 19.
75 Id.
76 Id.
77 Women's Refugee Commission, supra, note 67.
78 Id.
79 Id.
80 Id.
81 Semple, supra note 17.
82 Ruiz Soto, supra note 28, at 7.
83 Global Detention Project, supra note 11.
84 Ruiz Soto, supra note 28, at 15.
85 Alethia Fernández de la Reguera Ahedo, Immigration detention: practices of humiliation, disgust and contempt (Dec. 16, 2020).
86 Id.
87 Id.
88 Id.
89 Id.
90 Id. at 142.
91 Id. at 141.
92 Id.
93 Id. at 181.
94 Amnesty International, supra, note 19.
95 Amnesty International, supra, note 19.
96 Id.
97 Id.
98 Women's Refugee Commission, supra, note 67.
99 Varela Huerta, supra, note 1.
100 Women's Refugee Commission, supra, note 67.
101 Varela Huerta, supra, note 1.
102 Women's Refugee Commission, supra, note 67.
103 Faret, Téllez, & Rodríguez-Tapia, supra, note 65.
104 Id.
105 Global Detention Project, supra note 11.
106 Faret, Téllez, & Rodríguez-Tapia, supra, note 65.
107 Ramírez & Gámez, supra, note 21.
108 Id.
109 Id.
110 Id.
111 Id.
112 Resendiz, supra, note 24.
113 Lapp, supra note 2.
114 Faret, Téllez, & Rodríguez-Tapia, supra, note 65.
115 Congressional Research Service, supra note 73.
116 Id.
117 USAID, U.S.-Mexico Joint Statement On Sembrando Oportunidades, USAID (Dec. 1, 2021). https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/dec-1-2021-us-mexico-joint-statement-sembrando-oportunidades
118 Id.
119 WOLA, Mexico's Militarized Migration Crackdown Places Asylum Seekers, Migrants at Risk, WOLA (Mar. 23, 2021). https://www.wola.org/2021/03/mexicos-militarized-migration-crackdown-asylum/
120 Organization of American States, supra, note 3.
121 Organization of American States, IACHR Reminds Mexico of Its International Human Rights Commitments Concerning Citizen Security, OAS (Jul. 25, 2020). https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2020/178.asp
122 Id.
123 Women's Refugee Commission, supra, note 67.
124 Id.
125 WOLA, supra, note 119.
126 Organization of American States, supra, note 3.
127 Id.
128 Faret, Téllez, & Rodríguez-Tapia, supra, note 65.
129 Id.