MEXICO (Reuters) – Mexico assured other Latin American countries on Monday that immigration facilities at Mexico City’s international airport are safe and hygienic, while preparing for a broader crackdown to reduce the flow of illegal border crossings to the United States.
Officials at the National Migration Institute of Mexico (INM) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited the airport’s immigration facilities with officials from consulates in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, the government said in a statement.
Mexican officials heard questions and concerns from foreign representatives about the “failure” of citizens of their countries, the statement said. Employees reviewed the facilities’ hygiene, ventilation and safety conditions.
The trip endorsed Mexico’s commitment to solving the “problems that some foreigners faced when passing through AICM’s immigration filters,” said the government, referring to the airport by its acronym. He gave no further details.
The statement was made at a time when Mexico plans to step up surveillance at the southern borders to contain a sharp increase in migrants entering the country illegally to the United States.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Richard Pullin)