The headline on a statement from Mexico’s National Immigration Institute read: “INM rescues 800 Central American migrants who entered (Mexico) today irregularly.”
For many people who watched the moments when hundreds of Mexican national guardsmen with helmets and riot shields confronted hundreds of migrants who had been resting in the shade after walking up a highway all morning, “rescue” didn’t seem to be the right word.
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The headline on a statement from Mexico’s National Immigration Institute read: “INM rescues 800 Central American migrants who entered (Mexico) today irregularly.”
But such euphemisms have become the language immigration policy and not just in Mexico. The same terminology has been employed in Europe for immigrants crossing the Mediterranean, though sometimes those migrants are in unseaworthy vessels in need of assistance.
The U.S. Border Patrol uses the term as well — also at times in dubious situations — though most often in scenarios including migrants lost in the desert without water, a migrant drowning in the Rio Grande, migrants found in the back of a semi-trailer.
Sergio Prieto Díaz, chair of the Migration and Trans-border Processes group at the College of the Southern Border, said the government's language is aimed at justifying and obscuring what is really happening.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador didn’t use the word rescue when talking about the migrants Friday, but he expressed satisfaction with the actions of National Guard and applauded their restraint.
A female migrant carrying a child moves away from Mexican National Guards blocking the passage of a group of Central American migrants near Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. Hundreds of Central American migrants crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico from Guatemala Thursday after a days-long standoff with security forces. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A Mexican National Guard speaks with Honduran migrants who wanted to cross into Mexico but returned to Guatemala as the migrants stand in the Suchiate River which separates Mexico from Guatemala near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala were preparing to walk en masse across a bridge leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
Migrants plea to Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto the bridge spanning the Suchiate River, that marks the border between both countries, as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
Mexican National Guards detain a Central American migrant, partially covered, as some migrants throw rocks at them after the group crossed from Guatemala to Mexico, near the bank of the Suchiate River near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A young Central American migrant is held by fellow migrants as they are blocked by Mexican National Guards after they crossed the Suchiate River with a group of migrants from Guatemala to Mexico, on the riverbank near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A migrant girl looks at Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto the bridge spanning the Suchiate River, that marks the border between both countries, as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
Defenders of migrants' rights say rescues typically don’t involve spraying those being rescued with pepper spray. Those requiring rescue usually don’t run away from their rescuers.
Mexican National Guards stand on the bank of the Suchiate River where Central American migrants are crossing from Guatemala, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
But such euphemisms have become the language immigration policy and not just in Mexico. The same terminology has been employed in Europe for immigrants crossing the Mediterranean, though sometimes those migrants are in unseaworthy vessels in need of assistance.
The same statement Thursday from Mexico's immigration agency said the migrants were taken to “migration shelters,” which is a step beyond the agency's previous language calling its detention centers “immigration stations."
Mexico’s immigration agency has used the term “rescue” for years. Sometimes it has seemed a plausible fit, like when immigration agents find 100 migrants stuffed into the back of a trailer in sweltering heat and the driver has run off. There no doubt are times when migrants require rescuing.
Migrants scuffle with Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto a bridge spanning the Suchiate River that marks the border between both countries as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
The U.S. Border Patrol uses the term as well — also at times in dubious situations — though most often in scenarios including migrants lost in the desert without water, a migrant drowning in the Rio Grande, migrants found in the back of a semi-trailer.
The migrants rounded up Thursday had entered Mexico by crossing a river, not through immigration controls, so critics wondered why authorities didn't just say they were detained?
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute did not immediately respond to questions about its terminology.
Migrant children run away from clashes with Mexican National Guards after their group crossed the Suchiate River on foot from Guatemala to Mexico, on the riverbank near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoSantiago Billy)
Sergio Prieto Díaz, chair of the Migration and Trans-border Processes group at the College of the Southern Border, said the government's language is aimed at justifying and obscuring what is really happening.
“What they're achieving with this term in a way is disguising the militarization and the repression of immigration at the border,” Prieto said. “It's sketching the state as protector and guarantor of people traveling in an unprotected and risky way."
The “paternalistic” use of the word de-legitimizes the migrants, he said. “Because the image that they ultimately want to give is this notion that they are rescuing people who act irrationally, who embark on unnecessary dangers, who risk their lives and the lives of their children almost they would say without reason.”
Central American migrants who crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico are stopped by Mexican National Guard on the riverbank near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador didn’t use the word rescue when talking about the migrants Friday, but he expressed satisfaction with the actions of National Guard and applauded their restraint.
He said he had instructed Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard to make sure the migrants remained safe all the way back to their countries.
“Be careful with the security, throughout the assisted returns,” López Obrador said he told him, employing the latest bureaucratic euphemism for deportations.
Central American migrants approach a Mexican National Guard after crossing the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country.(AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A female migrant carrying a child moves away from Mexican National Guards blocking the passage of a group of Central American migrants near Tapachula, Mexico, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. Hundreds of Central American migrants crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico from Guatemala Thursday after a days-long standoff with security forces. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A Mexican National Guard speaks with Honduran migrants who wanted to cross into Mexico but returned to Guatemala as the migrants stand in the Suchiate River which separates Mexico from Guatemala near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala were preparing to walk en masse across a bridge leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
Migrants plea to Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto the bridge spanning the Suchiate River, that marks the border between both countries, as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
Mexican National Guards detain a Central American migrant, partially covered, as some migrants throw rocks at them after the group crossed from Guatemala to Mexico, near the bank of the Suchiate River near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A young Central American migrant is held by fellow migrants as they are blocked by Mexican National Guards after they crossed the Suchiate River with a group of migrants from Guatemala to Mexico, on the riverbank near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants hoping to reach the United States marooned in Guatemala are walking en masse across a river leading to Mexico in an attempt to convince authorities there to allow them passage through the country. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)
A migrant girl looks at Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto the bridge spanning the Suchiate River, that marks the border between both countries, as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP PhotoMarco Ugarte)