Mexico and the United States signed an agreement on Tuesday to expedite the reunification of migrant children who are in Mexican territory and have their father or mother north of the border.
Roberto Velasco, head of the Unit for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained that the objective is to reunite migrant children with their parents through the management of the Comprehensive Family Development agency (DIF) and thus avoid that families resort to the usual practice of paying traffickers to smuggle their children into the United States, putting their lives at risk.
Velasco calculated that several hundred families could benefit from this agreement. He did not specify which minors would be eligible for the program or if there are other requirements to access it.
More than 12,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in Mexico irregularly in 2022, according to federal government data, and some 6,000 were sent back to their countries of origin.
Also on Tuesday, both countries, represented by their respective ambassadors, signed another agreement on labor mobility that aims to increase the number of temporary work visas but, above all, to get both governments more involved in these contracts to verify that they are complied with. workers’ rights, Velasco said.
Until now, contracts through temporary employment visas in the United States were operated by private companies and organizations.
The two documents signed on Tuesday are the result of some of the agreements agreed upon by both governments within the framework of the North American summit held in Mexico last week, where Mexico and the United States promised to strengthen legal migration channels in the face of the enormous increase in irregular flows throughout 2022.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
