This SNAPSHOT summarizes the findings of Protection Monitoring conducting during the two-month period. Protection Monitoring is part of the humanitarian response of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Mexico to the crisis affecting mixed migration flows. DRC conducts this Protection Monitoring in Tapachula, Reynosa and Matamoros. The activities are carried out with the financial support of the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) of the United States Department of State. The intervention is conducted in association with Save the Children Spain and Mexico, Plan International USA and Mexico, HIAS Mexico, Doctors of the World France and Switzerland, and Alternativas Pacificas- To view the interactive Dashboard of the results of this period and since the start of the Protection Monitoring program, click here.
During March and April 2024, COMAR registered new asylum applications from just over 13,000 people nationwide, which represents a significant decrease relative to the approximately 24,000 applications registered in the same months of 2023 and the 23,000 applications received in the same period in 2022. The practices of the INM and COMAR in Tapachula continued to limit access to the formalization of applications by people on the move; 21.8% of respondents in this location had not attempted to start the process, mainly because they did not understand it, and 44.2% of respondents who had tried to start the asylum process still did not have an appointment to formalize their request. During March, some parts of the northern border saw an increase in the arrival of people on the move following a judicial ruling that paused the implementation of a local law in the United States that would have worsened the dynamics of detention and deportation. However, the number of irregular crossings into the United States apparently continued to decline, according to official communications from US immigration authorities, with a constant flow of people entering through regular channels: more than 44,000 people were processed along the entire border through the application CBP One during March and 41,400 people in April. However, the saturation of the application and the limited availability of appointments – only 12.5% of respondents monitored between Reynosa and Matamoros reported having an appointment – led to prolonged stays on the northern border; 53.9% of respondents in these same locations had been waiting for access to US territory for more than one month.