Abstract

CASILLAS R., Rodolfo. Notas para entender la migración: instituciones gubernamentales y política migratoria mexicanas en los albores del siglo XXI. Migr. desarro [online]. 2015, vol.13, n.24, pp.47-80. ISSN 1870-7599.

During the Calderón administration the amount of aggression and harm done to migrants in transit, and later also to Mexican migrants, reached extreme levels, with mass kidnappings and murders. The blame was placed squarely on organized crime, but the weaknesses, contradictions and anachronisms of the relevant laws, the difficulties in their application, and the strategic errors found in the actions of the National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico went without scrutiny. Without an analysis of these facts, any explanation that went beyond laying the blame on the criminal element avoided the responsibility that fell to the legal and political systems. This article presents, then, a critical assessment on the activities of the INM, its management and mandate, in instances in which the topic of National Security over rode the topic of migration. The result is an institutional implosion that also reveals the discrepancy between a dynamic reality and out dated, almost immovable, institutions.

Keywords : transit migration; national security; legal frame; administración Calderón; government priorities; Calderon's administration.