Effects of the new Mexican immigration policy on the human rights of migrants in transit

The migration policy in Mexico has been a chain of “emergency responses” to the historical and critical situations that instead of looking for a structural solution, the creation of laws, initiatives, and programs have been part of a restrictive system where control and lack of attention to the protection of human rights are the rule, not the exception.This thesis analyzes the effects of the migration policy in Mexico implemented since 2008 with the decriminalization of undocumented migration in the country, and whether the creation of the Migration Law –as the core of the new political stance on migration has worsened, enhanced, or exacerbated the abuses and violations of human rights of migrants. The investigation is a quantitative study based on reports of human rights of migrants’ violations that I collected from the National Commission on Human Rights database, and the Migrant Advocacy Organizations’ Documentation Network.I argue that the conditions in which migrants’ travel through Mexico, have not changed after the implementation of the new migration policy, but they have not improved either. Moreover, I claim that this control policy came in part from the United States externalization of borders and that the southern border program was an example of an emergency response to the unaccompanied minors “crisis”, which has now fostered a new era in which migrants and indigenous Mexicans are being hunted due to racial profiling