Migrants abandoned the American dream and saturated informal employment in Mexico

From Transit Country to Final Destination: Mexico Turned into a Migration Funnel

What was once a transit phenomenon has become a structural problem.
Mexico is no longer just a stopover for migrants. 
This is largely due to the tightening of  United States  immigration policies under the new mandate of Donald Trump.

Thousands of South Americans  have begun to settle in Mexican cities, not by choice, but due to a lack of options. The idea that Mexico is a land of opportunities fades upon entering the informal sector. There they survive without rights or guarantees, while the government continues to promote migration as if the country could handle everything.

Saturated and Uncontrolled Informal Employment

The majority of these migrants work in construction, street vending, or precarious services, without access to social security or labor rights. Their presence is not their fault, but that of the Mexican State, which lacks a serious immigration policy. Employers take advantage of their vulnerability, and Mexicans compete in an increasingly deteriorated labor market.

Instead of organizing migration, the government has allowed a silent saturation, without regulation or responsibility. This directly impacts the host communities. There, precariousness, unemployment, and pressure on public services increase.

Delayed Regularization and Institutional Chaos

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance  (COMAR) is overwhelmed. Asylum and regularization procedures take months, even years.  Thousands of migrants are trapped in legal limbo, without papers and without a future.

Despite this chaos, the government discourse remains the same: hospitality, solidarity, humanity. In practice, neither migrants nor Mexican citizens receive real attention. The State simply looks the other way.

Mexico Cannot and Should Not Bear the Crises of the Entire Region

The country already faces a crisis of poverty, insecurity, unemployment, and violence, let alone being the "alternative refuge" of the continent. It's not about xenophobia, but about common sense and institutional responsibility. Mexico doesn't have the infrastructure or capacity to absorb a migration wave of this magnitude.

Uncontrolled migration only benefits coyotes, labor exploiters, and governments that wash their hands of the issue. Meanwhile, neither migrants nor Mexicans have their rights guaranteed. Both are trapped in a broken system.