[progchat_action] Mexican police criticized for Central American detentions
 
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:46:25 -0500 (CDT)


Ciudad Juarez Police Criticized for Migrant Detentions

by Frontera NorteSur
 Posted on July 26, 2007

As in the United States, the involvement of local police and military forces
in enforcing immigration law is a question of hot debate and growing
conflict in Mexico. A report from Mexico's National Human Rights Commission
(CNDH) has criticized the Ciudad Juarez municipal police force for detaining
migrants, mainly Central Americans, and turning them over to the National
Immigration Institute
(INM) for possible deportation.

Mauricio Farah Gebrara, an immigrant rights investigator for the Mexico
City-based CNDH, said that Ciudad Juarez police do not have the legal
authority deliver migrants to the INM unless specifically requested to do so
by the federal agency. The CNDH official contended that the current practice
of routinely turning over migrants to the INM violates the Mexican
constitution.

According to Farah, the local police are responsible for approximately 26
percent of the detentions of undocumented migrants in the border city. In
many cases, migrants have accused police officers of physical abuse and
theft, Farah said. Farah added that legal authority for detaining migrants
bases solely on their immigration status rests with the INM or the Federal
Preventive Police, which is currently being merged with the Federal Agency
of Investigations to form one, unified federal police force. Nonetheless,
the Mexican army also detains migrants based on immigration reasons.

In the southern border of state of Chiapas, several Salvadoran, Honduran and
Guatemalan migrants have filed three formal complaints with the CNDH this
year against Mexican soldiers for robbery, physical aggression and improper
searches of women. A Chiapas-based human rights organization, the Fray
Matias de Cordova Center, charged that the complaints have not progressed
because the CNDH demands "evidence" that the undocumented immigrants entered
Mexico.

Despite the CNDH's Ciudad Juarez report, local police officers, especially
agents assigned to the downtown sector, have been recently spotted demanding
documents from individuals with migrant-like physical characteristics.

Human rights investigator Farah said that he expects to visit Ciudad Juarez
within the next several weeks to investigate the issue.

Sources: -- La Jornada, July 23, 2007. Article by Angeles Mariscal. --
Lapolaka.com, July 23, 2007. -- El Diario de Juarez, July 20, 2007.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin
American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New
Mexico

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