After three years of record numbers of asylum seekers, border management between Mexico and the United States appears set for a major shift which could affect migrant patterns across the Western hemisphere.
Deportations from the Mexican border have already increased following an executive order issued last week by United States President Joe Biden.
This decree mimics a Donald Trump-era policy which Democrats used to decry as heartless and illegal under international law, but now see as necessary for a comeback win in the upcoming presidential elections in November.
However, Mexico is expected to reduce its role as continental migration enforcer after leftists secured a massive electoral sweep last week.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum is expected to compel Washington to directly deport non Mexicans to their home countries, instead of sending them back to Mexico.
It is possible for Mexico to keep providing security and welfare for asylum seekers because treating them properly is not optional.
It's an obligation.
However, the new president is likely to decide that things cannot continue as they have been for another six years during her term and for many reasons; economic security, foreign policy and more.
Fausto Pretelin, Political Analyst
Mexico appears set to rely more on technology and less on security forces to handle migrant caravans, which can number in the 1,000s and which are a lucrative business for criminal enterprises.
But it's hard to ensure the safety of migrants when Mexican gangs get 70% of their firearms from the United States.
As long as the United States doesn't control the weapons, it doesn't only affect us on the cartel level.
Those same weapons are going all the way down south and those weapons are threatening their families, because I've been in the caravans, I've talked to migrants when they're trying to cross, their uncle has been killed for their land.
You still have a lot of insecurity and it comes with the weapons that are just coming through.
Natasha Uren, Migrantologist and Political Analyst
In what many say is an effort to increase the number of deportations as a political selling point, President Biden has prioritized families for removal.
In the past decade, entire families have become 40% of all migrants, a drastic change from years past when it was mostly single young men.
From brutal sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and, Nicaragua, to the overthrow of the Honduran government in 2008, to the repeated military occupation of Haiti, one can see the root cause of the Western hemisphere's long running refugee crisis is the destabilizing foreign policy influence of the United States.
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses: