Mexico’s 2025 Asylum Applications Hold Steady Despite US Pressure

Mexico — Amid pressure from the new Donald Trump administration in the United States for Mexico to halt the passage of undocumented migrants heading north, the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum received 58,800 asylum applications in the first nine months of the year, a figure similar to the same period in 2024, when there were 58,644.

According to the latest data from the National Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), updated through September, the migrants who most frequently seek asylum in Mexico are Cubans, followed by Venezuelans and Haitians, although there has been an increase in arrivals from Africa.

An analysis by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) further indicates that half of the asylum applications filed this year were processed in Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Mexico City.

“In the last five years, Mexico has received around 500,000 asylum applications, with a recognition rate exceeding 60 percent,” highlights UNHCR in its assessment of Mexico, published last September.

The hardening of migration policy in the United States since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20 of this year has led migrants to decide to stay in Mexico rather than reach the United States, says Javier Urbano, director of the Migration Program at the Universidad Iberoamericana (IBERO).

However, not all apply for asylum because the intention is “to resume the journey north once Trump concludes his term or they can save money to pay a coyote.”

According to UNHCR, although it is difficult to have an exact figure of migrants entering and leaving the country due to their mobility, 66 percent of those who arrive declare the intention to stay in Mexico.

After being sworn in for a second term as president, Donald Trump signed several executive orders, including fortifying the border with Mexico with National Guard troops and expanding the border wall.

He also suspended appointments through the CBP One application, which his predecessor, Joe Biden, established so migrants could access asylum in an orderly and less dangerous manner.

Simultaneously, the Republican launched a series of raids against migrants that have resulted in the detention of hundreds of people, many of whom remain for weeks in immigration detention centers before being returned to their countries of origin.