Let’s Talk About Migration
This editorial by Diego Torres appears as the introduction to the October 2025 issue of Hablemos de Migración, a newsletter on migration issues published by the Frente Amplio de Mexicanos y Migrantes. We encourage you to subscribe. The English version of the September 2025 issue is available for download.
The Migrant Paradox: Support of Nations, Victim of the System
To talk about migration is to contemplate the broad sense of the role that Hispanics could play in the United States, a potential that has not been fully realized. In the mix of cultures, the organization of all Hispanics has been lacking, and instead, internal discrimination has prevailed. This has strengthened white supremacy, which persecutes and terrorizes many migrants, regardless of their immigration status. At the same time, an oligarchic class pressures and marginalizes even those Hispanics with a stable, but fragile, immigration status. It is painful to note that, within the same migrant communities, a racism and xenophobia have developed that are as hurtful, if not more so, than the violence of white supremacists.
To talk about migration is to ask ourselves: How is it possible that those who have driven the economic growth of the United States and their countries of origin—such as Mexico, which in recent years has received more than sixty billion dollars in remittances annually—remain trapped in a grinding poverty that condemns them to exile?
To talk about migration is to denounce that Donald Trump’s persecution of migrants is not only a response to his personal hatred; it is also a response to the passivity of communities that have failed to organize themselves for decades and who expect governments to solve their problems. These same governments have failed to break with the old regimes that maintain control in their countries, the same ones that expelled millions as a result of the poverty and violence characteristic of neoliberalism. Nor has the international unity necessary for nations pressured by the United States to jointly confront its aggressive policies been built.
To talk about migration is a reminder that migratory flows will not stop. Although the news focuses on deportations, thousands of people continue to risk everything to cross the border.
To talk about migration is to call for an understanding of the reality of migrants: they are largely unprotected, both in the United States and upon their return to their communities of origin. Disunited, abused, and at odds with one another, many end up acting as if they were enemies, unaware that by doing so they benefit those who, by every means, take advantage of them.
To talk about migration is to criticize programs like Mexico Te Abraza1, not to eliminate them; but to strengthen them and expand their reach. Protecting not only Mexicans, but all Hispanic migrants persecuted by the U.S. administration. True accompaniment implies comprehensive and effective support.
To talk about migration means addressing the demands of migrants, who, tired of suffering, demand to receive something back from the many contributions they have made. It means supporting the channeling of their demands into concrete actions that will allow them to escape the situation they are in. It also means preventing them from falling prey to the right’s game, which seeks to manipulate their anger to prevent leftist governments from coming to power, obscuring the fact that those truly responsible for this misery are the products of those who, for decades, led administrations that plundered the people and who today seek to shift the responsibility for these events onto new governments seeking transformation.
To talk about migration, it is to demand that governments stop merely requesting an end to raids and begin to combat the structural causes that drive migration. We cannot speak of a real fight against poverty when, despite lifting millions out of poverty, these same millions lack access to a quality life with time for leisure, education, or recreation, while large businesses report multi-million-dollar profits year after year.
To talk about migration is a reminder that migratory flows will not stop. Although the news focuses on deportations, thousands of people continue to risk everything to cross the border. This persistence is clear evidence that precarious conditions continue to prevail in the sending countries.
To talk about migration is to consider that Mexico’s immigration policy is closely linked to that of the United States. However, this relationship should not be understood as servility; rather, it should be understood as a strategy to defend national sovereignty and protect the stability of Mexican migrants. The pressure of being a neighbor of the most hostile, corrupt, and violent government in the world is not easy. Mexico has had to contain migration flows because failure to do so would have even more serious consequences for migrants and for the country itself. Even though the United States has deported thousands, deportations of Mexicans have remained relatively low. However, it is necessary to denounce the misconduct of some members of the National Guard, who have begun to repeat practices of the former Federal Police, and to highlight the enormous task ahead in restructuring the National Migration Institute.
To talk about migration is to listen to those who shout that the government only cares about dollars from remittances. And to respond that it’s true; because those dollars are a lifeline for millions of families; but that doesn’t excuse us from continuing to demand structural justice. We cannot forget the weight of past governments, whose legacy of corruption and plunder will not disappear in a few six-year terms. It’s enough to recall the case of the FOBAPROA (National Fund for the Promotion of Economic Development) of 1994, whose debt has cost more than two trillion pesos in three decades and will continue to be paid at least until 2050.
To talk about migration is to acknowledge a complex present, but also the hope for change underway. This change demands active participation, organization, and vigilance, so as not to repeat the deviations of the past. Today, discontent in the United States is expressed in movement: like the No Kings march. The answer lies not in passive waiting, but in organization, unity, and cooperation. It is about capitalizing on widespread discontent to build a future where migration is an option and not a desperate necessity, and where returning to the country is by
choice and not through forced deportation.
- Mexico Embraces You: a program started by the Mexican government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to assist with the repatriation of Mexican citizens from the United States of America. ↩︎
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People’s Mañanera October 22
President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on rainfall emergency response, aid delivery, passenger trains, taxation and the fight against invoice mills.
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National Campesino Confederation Anticipates Agriculture Budget Cuts
Members of the CNC attended the Listening to the Voices of the Field forum at Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies to address their concerns about the budget directly to legislators
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Campesinos Ride Again
Last week’s strike by agricultural producers against the USMCA and the uncontrolled entry of subsidized grains from the US is part of a fight for Mexican food sovereignty that demands the government’s full attention.
