MEXICO CITY — Mexico will offer escorted bus travel from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexican migrants who have received a U.S. asylum designation, the government announced Saturday.
The National Immigration Institute said the buses will depart from the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula. It appeared to be an attempt to make asylum applications from southern Mexico more attractive to migrants who would otherwise push north to Mexico City or the border.
The message came a week later the US government expanded access to the CBP One application to southern Mexico. Access to the app, which allows asylum seekers to register and wait for an appointment, had previously been limited to central and northern Mexico.
The Mexican government wants more migrants to wait in southern Mexico further from the US border. Migrants typically complain that there is little work available in southern Mexico for a wait that can last months. Many have debts for their trip and feel pressure to work.
The migrants who use the buses will also receive a 20-day transit permit allowing them legal passage across Mexico, the institute’s statement said.
In the past, Mexican authorities said they would respect migrants who showed they had a scheduled asylum time at the border, but some migrants reported being swept up at checkpoints and sent back southhad to miss their meetings.
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies will provide security for the buses and meals will be provided during transit, the institute said.
Rides may also help dissuade some migrants from making the arduous journey north on foot. Three migrants were killed and 17 injured this week when a vehicle crashed into them on a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Mexico had pushed the United States to expand CBP One access in part to ease the buildup of migrants in Mexico City. Many migrants over the past year had chosen to wait for their appointments in Mexico City, where there was more work available and comparatively more security than the cartel-controlled border towns.
Those with the means buy plane tickets to the border crossing where their meetings are scheduled to reduce the risk of being caught by Mexican authorities or by the cartels, which abduct and ransom migrants.