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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2005 
Brazilians Will Need Visas to Enter Country
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Several foreign nationals must now have documents to enter Mexico, following a spike in migration to the United States. |
Mexico got catcalls from Brazil on Friday after announcing it will again require visas for Brazilians, many of whom have been using Mexico to enter the United States without documents.
Tens of thousands of Brazilians have been apprehended while trying to enter the United States illegally since Brazil and Mexico agreed to waive visa requirements for each others' citizens in February 2004.
The Mexican government announced the measures late Thursday. On Friday, it issued a statement denying local press reports that the measure was aimed at preventing the entry of "Muslims or 'presumed terrorists.'" "The Mexican government regrets such negative and ill-intended misinformation, which has caused so much indignation in Mexico and abroad," the Foreign Relations Secretariat said in a statement.
Starting Oct. 23, Mexico will again require Brazilian tourists or business travelers to get a multiple year, multiple entry visa, something similar to what the United States issues to Mexicans.
Brazil announced it will retaliate by requiring visas for Mexicans.
"The Brazilian government is obliged to respond in kind, establishing the same requirements for tourists and business travelers with Mexican passports," Brazil's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
However, one U.S. official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the move would decrease the number of potential undocumented migrants.
In fiscal year 2004, U.S. border patrol agents detained 886 Brazilians. That number skyrocketed to 29,885 in the first 11 months of the 2005 fiscal year.
Apart from Mexicans, who constitute by far the largest group detained in the United States, Brazil is now the thirdlargest source of undocumented migrants.
However, Mexican visa policy was not the only cause of that surge.
A lack of space in U.S. detention facilities has led the government to release Brazilians like many other OTM, or "Other Than Mexican" migrants.
Because they are too far from their homelands to be sent right back, tens of thousands have been released with a notice to appear in immigration court.
Many don't show disappearing, instead, among the estimated 10 million undocumented migrants living in the United States.
Mexico will also begin requiring visa for travelers from Ecuador and South Africa, whose citizens also frequently travel through Mexico to reach the United States. |
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