Laying the Foundation for Regional Cooperation Migration Policy and Institutional Capacity in Mexico and Central America Andrew Selee Ariel G. Ruiz Soto Andrea Tanco Luis Argueta Jessica Bolter Laying the Foundation for Regional Cooperation Migration Policy and Institutional Capacity in Mexico and Central America Andrew Selee Ariel G. Ruiz Soto Andrea Tanco Luis Argueta Jessica Bolter Migration Policy Institute April 2021 Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3 2 Mexico: Rewiring Institutional Capacity and Mandates to Meet New Migration Challenges ......................................................................................................................... 5 A. Migration Trends Shifting Mexico’s Identity ..............................................................................................5 B. A New Paradigm: Policy Changes and Institutional Mandates ...................................................10 C. Assessing the Capacity of Mexican Migration Institutions ............................................................12 D. The Implications of Policy Changes and Gaps to Be Addressed ................................................18 E. Moving beyond Reactive Policymaking ....................................................................................................22 3 Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador: Emerging Institutions and Critical Partnerships ....................................................................................................................... 22 A. Migration Patterns Shifting Priorities in Central America ................................................................23 B. Migration Management Structures: Incipient and Yet to Be Fully Institutionalized .......26 C. The Importance of Interagency Coordination and International Cooperation ................38 4 Costa Rica and Panama: A Study in Institutional Contrasts for Managing Migration ........................................................................................................................ 40 A. Changing Immigration and Asylum Trends ............................................................................................41 B. Migration Laws and Institutions .....................................................................................................................43 C. Addressing Transit Migration ...........................................................................................................................49 D. The Challenge Ahead ............................................................................................................................................51 5 Conclusions and Opportunities for the Future ........................................................ 51 Appendix. List of National and Regional Stakeholders Interviewed .................. 55 About the Authors ....................................................................................................................................... 59 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................................... 60 LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION Executive Summary The countries in the region that stretches from Panama northward to the United States are part of a major corridor for unauthorized migration. Today, most of this irregular migration comes from Guatemala, Honduras, and, to a lesser extent, El Salvador, and those who migrate are generally headed to the United States. But there are also significant numbers of people who come from outside the immediate region and transit through Central America on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. Notably, an increasing number of migrants have been settling down in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, often seeking asylum, as it has become harder to get to and enter the United States. Today, these countries face an unprecedented opportunity to lay the foundation necessary to build a regional migration system that privileges safe, orderly, and legal migration by adopting four shared strategies: ► developing legal, employment-based migration pathways; ► creating humanitarian protection mechanisms as close as possible to where people in need of protection live; ► professionalizing border and immigration enforcement throughout the region; and ► investing strategically in development, sustainability, and rule of law. Understanding the institutional capacities, legal frameworks, and existing policies of countries in the region is an important starting point for building this long-term regional cooperation. While previous work by the Migration Policy Institute on regional migration has focused on the policies, institutions, and capacities of the U.S. government,1 this report examines these facets of migration management in Mexico and Central American countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.2 Building on interviews with more Understanding the institutional than 75 stakeholders from across the region, this capacities, legal frameworks, and existing research focuses not only on how governments policies of countries in the region is an operate, but also how civil-society organizations important starting point for building this contribute to regional migration management within and among these countries. long-term regional cooperation. Countries in the region have developed significant new capacities to manage migration over the past five years, but these have often been fragile, ad hoc, and weakly institutionalized. In addition, these developments have often been overly weighted toward border and immigration enforcement priorities, at the expense of other equally important challenges. Other than Costa Rica, no government has managed to 1 This includes recent work by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) as part of the Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy initiative. See MPI, “Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: Building a Responsive, Effective Immigration System,” accessed March 4, 2021. 2 This study does not address Nicaragua because, at present, the potential for including the Nicaraguan government in regional cooperation arrangements seems distant. MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 8 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 1 LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION create a clear, sustainable process for developing migration policy or for coordinating among the agencies involved in migration and integration issues, despite emerging attempts. And in most governments, agencies’ responsibility for different aspects of migration management is often poorly defined and overlapping in ways that have led to confusion and uneven implementation. Among the most notable advances—and some key limitations—in the region are: ► growing attention to and resourcing of migration functions within governments; ► enhanced capacity for border and immigration enforcement, although the responsibilities of different agencies remain unclear in most countries, and there is a need for more transparent and clear policies and protocols to ensure compliance with national and international laws; ► increased investment in asylum agencies’ institutional and operating capacities in most countries, though these have been eclipsed by sharp increases in demand for protection in Mexico and Costa Rica, and humanitarian protection mechanisms are still poorly institutionalized elsewhere; ► incipient legal frameworks for addressing internal displacement and protection needs in Mexico and El Salvador, although some elements of these still need to be put into practice, and civil-society organizations continue to lead the majority of efforts on the ground; ► some increasing attention to labor migration policies and practices, with a vetted pipeline of potential workers for seasonal migration programs in Guatemala and streamlined processes for the recruitment of agricultural workers in Costa Rica, but most countries have yet to fully leverage the potential of legal migration pathways; and ► limited but tailored investments in programs to support the return and reintegration of migrants in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, though the bulk of these efforts continue to be run by civil-society organizations. Across the region, international organizations, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have played an important role in supporting the development of capacity in different areas of migration management. They have also been instrumental in creating regional conversations among migration agencies and government leaders on these issues. In all countries, civil-society organizations play an important role in expanding migrants’ access to protection and reintegration mechanisms, but these are often divorced from government initiatives and only occasionally supported by governments. These recent institutional and policy changes pave the way for the critical further development of institutional capacity among these countries, so that they can be part of a regional migration system based on co-responsibility. These efforts will require governments