The imposition of visas on Mexicans raises fears of more dangerous border crossings

Since February 29, Ottawa has again required Mexican travelers to present a visa at the border. A measure that raises fears of the worst for those who try to apply for asylum in Canada, according to experts and activists based in Montreal.

Consequence of the new measure? Travel authorizations granted until February 29 have been cancelled. Those affected by this cancellation must resume their travel procedures by applying for a visa. Exemptions have been announced for international students and temporary agricultural workers.

The first thing you notice when talking to Viviana is her great energy and her relaxed style. Arriving by plane from Mexico two years ago, the activist for the rights of women and girls in her country of origin is very concerned for her own.

She reacts strongly to the new visa requirement, an obligation that was however lifted in 2015 by the Trudeau government: “It seemed to me a bit unfair, a bit inhuman, that they did it this way! And for people to miss their flight, to lose money — people who may have saved up and who could not afford to come here and seek asylum.” Two years ago, Viviana sought asylum in Canada, fearing for her life.

“I remember having to gather money for my flight and leave the country immediately because my safety, my life, was in serious danger. If my flight had been cancelled, then I would have continued to run a great risk,” she said.

Viviana feels that she had no choice but to leave Mexico, where she received threats for her work defending women's rights. With several feminist groups, she participated in the search for missing women.

“All of this work has put us in conflict with different groups. In my case, it was the military, who didn't like what we were doing. There were threats and direct persecution against me and my organization,” she explains.

“Soldiers even came to my house and beat me up.” Although she tried to hide with comrades in other states in the country, she was being traced.

Exile became his only way out.

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Stereotypes

Nina is a dynamic woman who cares about the fate of all. A volunteer at the Center for Migrant Workers, she fights against the violation of the labor rights of people without status in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec.

When you meet her, the office is full, and she coordinates the entries of people looking for job advice. According to her, this imposition of visas on Mexicans reinforces certain stereotypes against Latin Americans, namely that they are all violent and linked to organized crime.

“While the vast majority of people who come here are more victims of violence who are just looking to integrate,” she believes.

At the offices of the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL), over a coffee, Rosalinda Hidalgo sharply criticizes the return of visas for Mexicans: “I think it is a racist, discriminatory and exclusionary decision.” She believes that this decision is part of a larger policy of tightening immigration laws in Canada, in the wake of, for example, the closure of the crossing point of Roxham Road.

“This decision is troubling because it cannot guarantee the asylum policy, which must be maintained for those who request it”, believes the head of the CDHAL.

“I think we will worsen the risk situation for migrants. You don't control migration like that, people will come in other ways.”

Reached by phone, Carlos Rojas, founder and director of Conseil Migrant, an organization that supports migrants with precarious status, deplored this decision.

“Closing Roxham and imposing the visa doesn't matter at all. These types of measures increase the Business for smugglers and human traffickers, and that increases the violation of human rights,” he said.

“It's like giving traffickers permission to do anything.”

“It concerns me because people who want to migrate are going to look for another way, even an illegal one, to come here,” Viviana also believes. The case of Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores, a pregnant Mexican woman who died drowned while trying to cross the Canadian border into the United States illegally, is a sad illustration of what Viviana said.

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Fragmented and widespread violence

Since 2015, 7,118 asylum applications from Mexicans have been accepted in Canada. At a press conference, the Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, said that Ottawa is again imposing this requirement because there are “abusive” asylum applications from Mexicans. He suggests that 17% of all asylum applications submitted in 2023 in Canada came from this country.

Thousands of kilometers from Ottawa, the Kino Border Initiative works with migrants at the border of Mexico and the United States, in the state of Arizona. As part of a conference organized by the Center for Migration Studies on the different faces of migration at the border between these two countries, Johanna Williams, the executive director of the Kino Border Initiative, reports a marked increase in Mexican migrants fleeing violence.

“We are working with people who are stuck in Nogales,” she says. His organization estimates that in 2023, 76% of the people in their shelters were Mexican and that half of them came from the state of Guerrero, in southwest Mexico.

“83% of the people welcomed by Kino reported that violence and persecution were the main reasons for their migration. We are seeing an upward trend.”

In the dock? A fragmentation of the violence of the gangs that control more and more villages and who wage war against each other. Recently, employees of the organization heard the story of a family who fled their village. He was caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs: the one who controlled the village and another who wanted to take it from him.

“The gang that controlled the place organized a meeting for all the villagers to attend. The gang members asked that each household send a man to join their group, otherwise the whole family would be murdered,” reports M.^Me Williams. A threat enough for this family to flee.

This type of situation, which is becoming more and more frequent, marks a change in Mexico, according to her. Since 2018, more than 30,000 people have been murdered every year in a country that is facing a crisis of kidnappings, disappearances and other violent crimes. “It is civilians who are paying the price,” reports the Global Conflict Tracker, an interactive guide that brings together information on ongoing conflicts, including information on ongoing conflicts, including the violence of organized crime, as well as that of the State.

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Women are also tragically bearing the brunt of this violence, since feminicides are a problem singled out by several organizations, both national and international. For example, in 2020, 3,723 violent deaths of women were recorded in Mexico, According to Amnesty International.

“In this war against drug trafficking, it is the civilian population that is the victim of this violence. Women and young girls have been really vulnerable for several years,” explains the head of the CDHAL Rosalinda Hidalgo.

“The violence in our country has increased a lot and, unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption. The police, which are supposed to protect you, are rather complicit in criminal groups,” adds Vivana, whose colleagues who are active in the cause of women are still missing to this day.

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A “moral debt”

Rosalinda insists on another aspect of welcoming Mexican nationals. Like Canada is causing problems, especially in the area of mineral extraction, he has a “moral obligation” to welcome people who suffer from the consequences of the operations of companies with contested practices. “The extraction of Canadian mining companies causes internal displacement, but also environmental contamination. It also causes human rights violations,” she notes.

This position is supported by Carlos Rojas. “We bring in Mexicans and Guatemalans to pick our vegetables in our fields. Most of this agricultural production is then sold to the United States, he believes. So you bring people here, you exploit them here... to trade with the United States.” While agricultural workers are exempt from visa requirements under Canada's new resolution, the fact remains that Mexicans are welcome only if they are ready for hard jobs.

Since 2018, Mr. Rojas has been trying to get the principle of a humanitarian corridor between Mexico and Canada adopted. “This would mean setting up offices in camps for people who are on the border between Mexico and the United States, but also all over this country,” he suggests. Such an approach has been implemented in some refugee camps, particularly in Syria, to help nationals of this country at war flee to Canada.

Moreover, Mr. Rojas has just sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, asking her to consider this option following the recent imposition of visas on Mexican nationals.

Johanna Williams, during the conference she gave in the United States on the plight of Mexicans, recalls that the majority of them want to stay in their community, but that certain problems, including violence, force them to flee.

Sitting and pensive, in the office of the Welcome Collective, Viviana says she is enjoying her new life, even if her journey has been difficult. “Mexico is a very dangerous country, very dangerous for a woman, for an activist,” says the woman, who hopes wholeheartedly that her comrades who will need to flee the country will not have to take great risks to go to Canada.

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