Mexico’s Supreme Court Shuts Down Immigration Checkpoints As ‘Unconstitutional’

Mexico’s Supreme Court recently ruled that interior immigration checkpoints are unconstitutional since they violate the right to equality and non-discrimination. The decision comes at a time when Mexico is seeing a record-setting numbers of migrants entering from its southern border and making their way to the U.S.

Late last week, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a ruling addressing internal checkpoints used by Mexico’s National Immigration Institute as a way to find migrants traveling north by bus or car. The checkpoints disproportionately affected indigenous people and “African Mexicans,” according to a prepared statement from the court. The ruling claimed that INM agents lacked parameters to properly run the checkpoints.

#ComunicadoSCJN

La #PrimeraSala determinó la inconstitucionalidad del procedimiento de revisión migratoria realizado por el @INAMI_mx en lugares distintos a los de tránsito internacional.

https://t.co/qA3bjcWkEL pic.twitter.com/DaEgjsHdm9

— Suprema Corte (@SCJN) May 19, 2022

The ruling came after the Institute for Women in Migration (INUMI) helped a group of three indigenous people from Chiapas file an injunction after INM agents detained them in 2015 because they did not look Mexican and pressured them into signing documents stating they were from Guatemala.

It remains unclear how much of an impact the removal of such checkpoints will have on immigration since INM agents have been linked in the past to human smuggling organizations.

Under pressure from the U.S. government, several Mexican border states have recently implemented checkpoints with the help of Mexico’s INM to stop buses with migrants from reaching the border.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.