Just 0.3 percent of minors fleeing Central America accept Mexico’s offer of refugee status, deciding instead to cross into the United States to seek asylum, raising new questions about their credibility to claim that their lives are in danger.
Under fire from Human Rights Watch for granting asylum to just 52 of 16,869 unaccompanied minors caught last year, the Mexican government said that the illegals rejected help and decided instead to head into the United States or be sent back home.
“All unaccompanied girls, boys, and adolescents are offered refuge in Mexico and the INM has documented that minors reject it because their sole purpose is to reach the United States or to be reunited with their closest relatives because in Mexico they would not have to opportunity to do so,” said Mexico’s National Institute for Migration in a statement slamming the Human Rights Watch report.
The statement, revealed by the Center for Immigration Studies, draws into question claims by the tens of thousands of illegal minors flooding into the United States that their lives are in danger and that they need refugee status in America.
“What credibility do these minors have to claim asylum when they reach the United States, after they cross through a country which offers them refuge?” said the report from CIS, authored by Kausha Luna, who recently documented the wave of Cubans crossing into the U.S.
“The touted argument, ‘They are fleeing for their lives, so we must take them in,’ certainly sounds less convincing after they forgo refuge in Mexico and further endanger their lives as they continue to the U.S. border,” added Luna.
Over the past two years, over 100,000 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have crossed into the United States seeking refugee status from sexual assault, gang terrorism, slavery and other claims.
This year, tens of thousands more are expected to make the journey through Mexico to the U.S., according to federal officials.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
