Mexico tightens travel rules on Peruvians in a show of visa diplomacy to slow migration to US

BOULEVARD, Calif. -- Julia Paredes believed her determination to the United States mightiness beryllium present oregon never. Mexico was days from requiring visas for Peruvian visitors. If she didn't enactment quickly, she would person to marque a acold much perilous, surreptitious travel implicit onshore to settee with her sister successful Dallas.

Mexico began requiring visas for Peruvians connected Monday successful effect to a large influx of migrants from the South American country, aft identical moves for Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Brazilians. It efficaciously eliminated the enactment of flying to a Mexican metropolis adjacent the U.S. border, arsenic Paredes, 45, did conscionable earlier it was excessively late.

“I had to dainty it arsenic a emergency,” said Paredes, who worked serving luncheon to miners successful Arequipa, Peru, and borrowed wealth to alert to Mexico's Tijuana, crossed from San Diego. Last period smugglers guided her done a distant opening successful the borderline partition to a ungraded batch successful California, wherever she and astir 100 migrants from astir the satellite shivered implicit campfires aft a greeting drizzle and waited for overwhelmed Border Patrol agents to thrust them to a presumption for processing.

Senior U.S. officials, speaking to reporters up of a gathering of apical diplomats from astir 20 countries successful the Western hemisphere this week successful Guatemala, applauded Mexico's crackdown connected aerial question from Peru and called visa requirements an important instrumentality to jointly face amerciable migration.

For critics, shutting down aerial question lone encourages much unsafe choices. Illegal migration by Venezuelans plummeted aft Mexico imposed visa requirements successful January 2022, but the lull was short-lived. Last twelvemonth Venezuelans made up astir two-thirds of the record-high 520,000 migrants who walked done the Darien Gap, the notorious jungle spanning parts of Panama and Colombia.

More than 25,000 Chinese traversed the Darien past year. They mostly alert to Ecuador, a state known for fewer question restrictions, and transverse the U.S. borderline illegally successful San Diego to question asylum. With an immigration tribunal backlog topping 3 cardinal cases, it takes years to determine specified claims, during which clip radical tin get enactment permits and found roots.

“People are going to travel nary substance what,” said Miguel Yaranga, 22, who flew from Lima, Peru's capital, to Tijuana and was released by the Border Patrol Sunday astatine a San Diego autobus stop. He had orders to look successful migration tribunal successful New York successful February 2025, which puzzled him due to the fact that helium said helium told agents helium would settee with his sister connected the different broadside of the country, successful Bakersfield, California.

Jeremy MacGillivray, lawman main of the Mexico ngo of the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration, predicts that Peruvian migration volition driblet “at slightest astatine the beginning” and bounce backmost arsenic radical displacement to walking done the Darien Gap and to Central America and Mexico.

Mexico said past period that it would necessitate visas for Peruvians for the archetypal clip since 2012 successful effect to a “substantial increase” successful amerciable migration. Large-scale Peruvian migration to Mexico began successful 2022; Peruvians were stopped successful the state an mean of 2,160 times a period from January to March of this year, up from a monthly mean of 544 times for each of 2023.

Peruvians besides began showing up astatine the U.S. borderline successful 2022. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Peruvians an mean of astir 5,300 times a period past twelvemonth earlier falling to a monthly mean of 3,400 from January done March, amid a wide migration crackdown by Mexico.

Peru instantly reciprocated Mexico's visa request but changed people aft a backlash from the country's tourism industry. Peru noted successful its reversal that it is portion of a determination economical bloc that includes Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

Adam Isacson, an expert astatine the Washington Office connected Latin America, said Peru's rank with Mexico successful the Pacific Alliance allowed its citizens visa-free question longer than different countries.

It is unclear if Colombia, besides a large root of migration, volition beryllium next, but Isacson said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is successful a “lovefest” with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, portion his relations with Peru's authorities are much strained.

Colombians are consistently adjacent the apical nationalities of migrants arriving astatine Tijuana's airport. Many find hotels earlier a usher takes them to boulder-strewn mountains eastbound of the city, wherever they transverse done openings successful the borderline partition and past locomotion toward ungraded tons that the Border Patrol has identified arsenic waiting stations.

Bryan Ramírez, 25, of Colombia, reached U.S. ungraded with his woman past month, lone 2 days aft leaving Bogota for Cancun, Mexico, and continuing connected different formation to Tijuana. He waited alongside others overnight for Border Patrol agents to prime him up arsenic acold rainfall and precocious winds whipped implicit the crackle of high-voltage powerfulness lines.

The radical waiting adjacent Boulevard, a small, loosely defined agrarian town, included respective Peruvians who said they came for economical accidental and to flight unit and governmental crises.

Peruvians tin inactive debar the Darien jungle by flying to El Salvador, which introduced visa-free question for them successful December successful reciprocation for a akin determination by Peru's government. But they would inactive person to question implicit onshore done Mexico, wherever galore are robbed oregon kidnapped.

Ecuadoreans, who person needed visas to participate Mexico since September 2021, tin besides alert to El Salvador, but not each do. Oscar Palacios, 42, said helium walked done Darien due to the fact that helium couldn't spend to fly.

Palacios, who near his woman and year-old kid successful Ecuador with plans to enactment them financially from the U.S., said it took him 2 weeks to question from his location adjacent the convulsive metropolis of Esmeralda to Mexico's borderline with Guatemala. It past took him 2 months to transverse Mexico due to the fact that migration authorities turned him astir 3 times and bused him backmost to the confederate portion of the country. He said helium was robbed repeatedly.

Palacios yet reached Tijuana and, aft 3 nights successful a hotel, crossed into the U.S. A Border Patrol cause spotted him with migrants from Turkey and Brazil and drove them to the ungraded batch to hold for a van oregon autobus to instrumentality them to a presumption for processing. Looking backmost connected the journey, Palacios said helium would alternatively transverse Darien Gap 100 times than Mexico adjacent once.

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Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman successful Mexico City contributed.