Giving Compass' Take:

• Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas lays out the challenges that Mexico's migration reforms will face in an era of increasingly complex immigration policy. 

• How can funders work to encourage the development of practical and humane immigration policies? 

• Learn about practices to build immigration consensus in a divided world.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has placed improvements in Mexico’s migration policy and reintegration of returning Mexicans at the top of the agenda in the first months of his administration—a determination complicated by the transit of thousands of Central American migrants and asylum seekers in caravans that have vexed the U.S. government. In addition, U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence on building a border wall and rhetoric targeting immigrants—alongside recent U.S. policies that leave some would-be asylum seekers in limbo in Mexico for weeks and months at a time—are posing challenges for Mexico’s new government.

In response, the López Obrador administration (with the president widely known by his initials, AMLO) has vowed to broadly shift the focus of the country’s migration policy from enforcement to protection. The three pillars of this new policy include protection of human rights, decriminalization of migration, and cooperation with Central America.

As AMLO rolls out his vision, his administration will need to perform a careful balancing act between protecting immigrants and avoiding domestic backlash targeted at Central Americans transiting the country or remaining in Mexico—all while maintaining a cooperative relationship with the Trump administration.

This article discusses the challenges the Mexican government will face in addressing rising migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), protecting Mexicans in the United States, and reintegrating returned migrants into Mexican society.

While Central American migration through Mexico is not new, intense media coverage of migrant caravans brought the issue into focus for much of the Mexican public in recent months. Changes in the migrants’ modes of travel, demographics, and length of stay have also altered the narrative surrounding Central Americans in Mexico.

Read the full article about Mexico Migration Reforms agenda by Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas at Migration Policy Institute.