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Mexico’s incoming president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), wants to work with US president Trump to reduce migration and tighten borders. But, Tamara Pearson writes from Puebla, his approach doesn’t address key humanitarian issues.

When it comes to immigration and refugees, Mexico’s progressive president elect, AMLO, has more in common with US President Donald Trump than you’d expect.

While the world watches on as the US deports refugees and immigrants and locks up children, Mexico is already deporting Central Americans than the US. Further, between 2016 and 2017, nearly Central American children were detained here in migration prisons (officially dubbed “stations”).

The US and Mexico are cooperating in patrolling Mexico’s southern border, implementing a security plan that has involved of immigrants deported without a solid revision of their case. Central American migrants are forced to for weeks to avoid border officials and gangs who regularly abuse migrants.

The US has designated well over to be used on the Mexican-Guatemalan border. Former US president Barack Obama allocated annually to Plan Merida — an agreement between Mexico, Central American countries and the US, to supposedly counter drug trafficking, crime and money laundering in the region.

These funds have gone towards spy technology, intelligence gathering, 24 Blackhawk helicopters, 2200 Humvee vehicles, and more. Ultimately, this bilateral collaboration is a way for the US government to donate money to private arms companies, with Mexico's southern border as an excuse.

Rather than challenging this cooperation with the US, or the vision of migrants as a burden or threat, AMLO says that when sworn in on December 1, Mexico will continue guarding its borders.

Development

In July, shortly after his electoral victory, AMLO sent a to Trump, stating he wanted to begin “a new stage” in Mexico-US relations based on “mutual respect”. That so-called respect, however, doesn’t involve an end to Mexico’s role as the US’s low-grade accomplice in filtering out Central Americans seeking refuge or work in the US.

AMLO told Trump: “The key goal of my government will be to get to a point where Mexicans don’t have to migrate because of poverty or violence. We’ll ensure that migration is elective, rather than necessary.”

And indeed, AMLO’s focus on creating employment and “development” to prevent forced immigration initially appears to get to the roots of the problem.

Mexico, he said, is willing to put money into a joint effort with the US and Central American countries, where 75% of the funding would go towards regional development and 25% to “border control and security”. Also, each country should take “care of their borders to prevent the illegal trafficking of merchandise, arms, and drugs”.

Mexico’s incoming security minister, Alfonso Durazo, also recently announced  AMLO’s plans for a new police force “to stop undocumented immigrants, drugs and guns from crossing into the country from Central America”. He said it would be “sizable” and would be deployed on Mexico's northern and southern borders to “apply the law”.

�հ��ܳ���’s to AMLO’s letter was vague: “Like you, I believe that meeting the challenge of illegal immigration involves more than just strong border security. We are prepared to further address the economic development and security issues that drive migration from Central America, but we must also increase cooperation to protect the rule of law and the sovereignty of both our countries.”

Continuity

AMLO’s migration policies so far do nothing to protect the right to migrate. They are also, at least in words, no different to current right-wing president Enrique Pena Nieto’s policies.

Pena Nieto also said that increased work opportunities in Central America was getting to the “bottom of the problem”. At the same time, e increased the number of guards on the trains migrants use, and used motion detectors, geolocation devices and using drones to catch migrants.

In southern Mexico, security officials patrol the roads, check cars and buses, and conduct operations in bars, parks and squares where migrants are known to hang out. In 2009, the country’s Human Rights commission 9758 kidnappings of migrants in a space of five months. Migrants themselves have disappearances, clandestine graves, beatings and mass kidnappings.

Most of the migrants I’ve talked to had been extorted at the very least. of women passing through Mexico are raped or sexually abused.

Any “development” in Mexico, meanwhile, is unlikely to counter one of the biggest causes of economic migration: inequality. The huge wealth and living standard disparities between rich countries such as the US and poorer countries such as Mexico are rooted in centuries of ongoing economic exploitation.

Putting the differences in the cost of living aside, a Mexican in the bottom 10% here earns just US$ a year.

Inhumane policies

Though Trump and AMLO are very different, when it comes to migration, neither is amenable to the idea of humane, open borders. Such a policy would ensure migration is a welcoming and supported experience, instead of wrought with abuse and danger.

In Mexico City, I talked to two refugees fleeing El Salvador Jaquelinn Madrid Mendoza, 19, and her friend, Josue Flores Rivera. They had received death threats from gangs because they couldn’t pay the weekly “tax”.

“The borders should be more flexible,” Madrid said. “There’s less work and more violence and danger where we come from, but we’re forced to cross borders incorrectly because of the security.

“We had to stay in Tapachula (near the Mexican-Guatemalan border) for a while because we were scared. You can work there to save up money to be able to keep on traveling, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can be attacked or kidnapped. There are a lot of border officers, so you feel uncomfortable.”

Near the border, Flores said, “there are a lot of migrants. Many of them have to sleep in the street. It would be great if when we said that we are migrants, they’d say, ‘Ah, okay,’ and try to help us. But instead, they grab you and deport you.”

But not everyone has trouble getting into Mexico. People from the US, for example, can enter the country for six months on a tourist visa applied for when entering the country.

“If you’re coming from a country with less, it shouldn’t be harder to get into Mexico,” Flores said. “It shouldn’t be unequal. In the end, we're all humans, so the borders should be more accessible.”

Beyond protecting the human rights of those forced to travel overland, it has been proven over and again that open borders are better for all parties: for the receiving countries, the countries people are leaving, and of course, the migrants themselves.

A rigorous Danish study conducted over 17 years found that borders open to large influxes of refugees tend to see a risein low-skilled wages and employment for residents of the receiving country. Economist Michael Clemens calculated that opening the world’s borders would double global GDP.

Allowing workers to move where global and regional economies need them increases their productivity. Such workers also send money back to their country of origin as remittances in quantities much higher than the tokenistic and controlling “aid” rich countries send.

People who need to migrate will do so. Putting up barriers only makes things harder for them. In Mexico, immigrants who stay without formal permission can’t legally work or exercise other rights, and become part of a super-exploited class.

The needed border policy

Instead of deporting migrants and refugees, AMLO should deport a few US companies. Constellation Brands, for example, is building a plant in northern Mexico where all of the bottles of beer produced daily will go right back to the US.

The plant doesn’t benefit Mexicans, but will consume a lot of water. This farmers in the region struggling to complete one crop a year. Another Constellation Brands plant so much water that local residents had none.

Coca Coca has Mexico with its 16,000 corner stores. Squeezing out local foods, Coca Cola gets Mexicans hooked on the drink early by sponsoring school sports courts. And here in Puebla recently, a hydro-electric station dependent on a local river has been approved to power .

Refugees and migrants, meanwhile, have much less freedom. The or more refuges around Mexico are nowhere near enough to provide shelter and rest for them during their journeys. Refuges like the one I work with depend on donations and volunteers. Others are supported by religious organisations and churches.

The UNHCR also provides some support, and Amnesty International used to, but this support comes with conditions — such as who the money goes to, and how it is spent. AMLO, instead of beefing up border security, should instead use such resources to provide more refuge, employment, housing and health services for migrants and immigrants.

He should strive for new migration laws that welcome people to Mexico, no matter where they are coming from.

[Tamara Pearson is a journalist based in Puebla, Mexico, and author of the novel, . Her writing can be found at .]