Latest in Mexico

Federal Law Enforcement

What Happens If the Trump Administration Designates Drug Cartels as Terrorist Organizations?

The move would allow the president to implement several criminal and financial penalties against those groups and their members—but the measures will not necessarily help the federal government combat the cartels. 

Immigration

Asylum Officers: Remain in Mexico ‘Virtually Guarantees’ Unlawful Removal of Asylum Seekers

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program has faced a great deal of criticism since the Trump administration unveiled the policy, colloquially known as Remain in Mexico, in January 2019. Now, the policy is facing public condemnation from within the Department of Homeland Security itself. A union representing asylum officers, the front-line adjudicators of humanitarian claims, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday criticizing the MPP program.

Latin America

AMLO’s National Guard: Mexico Still Needs Its Military to Restore Public Safety

In the months since Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (often called “AMLO”), announced the creation of a “national guard” as a core component of his public security strategy, the proposal has received significant criticism.

Mexico

On Security, Mexico’s New President Brings Old Thinking

Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador—nicknamed AMLO among the public and in the media—took the oath of office on Dec. 1. As the first representative of the political left to be elected president in Mexico’s post-2000 democratic era, AMLO embodies a public that yearns for a dramatic change of direction.

Border Security

The Invisible Caravans

The sun was setting over the southern Mexican highway that hugs the Guatemala-Mexico border. Any tourists sitting along the road might have taken a photo or commented to one another on the picturesque rural backdrop. Yet it barely registered for the four Hondurans with whom I was traveling. “You pass through so many beautiful places as you move through Mexico,” José said to me as he waved toward the sunset, “but you are usually too tired or miserable to enjoy it.”

Immigration

A 'Safe Third Country' Agreement With Mexico Won’t Fix U.S. Migratory Challenges

The Trump administration’s efforts to establish a “zero tolerance policy” prosecuting all irregular border-crossers ended in high-profile disarray but the fallout continues. Months after the president signed an executive order halting the family separations that his administration had implemented, more than 500 children still wait to be reunited with their parents.

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