*UPDATE. 10/12/12. The content of this article might not be updated. As of September 28th, 2012, the new Regulations of the Migration Law where published. You can find an updated article in the following link: http://chflawyers.com/649/new-immigration-rules
The Mexican Federal Government’s compromise to modernize immigration policy and improve the situation of immigrants in Mexico has fallen to the wayside, or at least that is the impression given by its noncompliance with the decree published on May 25th, 2011 that promulgated, among other laws, the Immigration Law, whose THIRD provisional article signals that “Within the term of one hundred and eighty days counted from the day that the present law enters into effect, the Federal Executive will expedite the Regulations to the Migration Law…”. The said term expired November 21st, 2011, yet at the date of this writing, November 25th, there has been no public proclamation by the Ministry of the Interior or the National Immigration Institute about the said regulations.
On September 27th, 2011, by means of a bulletin, the Ministry of the Interior informed that proposals and concerns for consideration before the elaboration of the project of the regulations for the recently approved Immigration Law, where formally solicited. The same bulletin states that the proposals for the regulations where accepted until September 19th, 2011. The truth is that many organizations related to the immigration theme were never consulted, such as the case of the Task Force on Immigration Law and Policy, a group of more than 10 organizations dealing with the topic.
At the end of October of 2011 many major news services published a Notimex interview with the director of the National Immigration Institute’s Center for Migratory Studies, Ernesto Rodriguez, stating that at the end of November the regulations of the new Migration Law should be ready. As of the day of this day, there has been no publication and the Immigration Institute’s personnel don’t appear to know anything about the subject.
The Federal Government announced with much fanfare the new era in immigration policy and the virtues of the new law, but shouldn’t its manner of showing it’s compromise have been doing it’s job and publishing the regulations months ago, instead of waiting until the end of the period given by the law? The law that structures the organization of the Federal Public Administration and the Constitution directly hold the Minister of the Interior and the head of the Federal Executive Branch, the President of the Republic, responsible. These authorities could be compelled to comply with the law; however, forced compliance through legal means would, in a country who’s laws give more importance to formality than substance, be extremely impractical.
Lets hope that the Federal Government will soon announce something on the subject, otherwise, this author invites society to raise it’s voice to compel the government to comply with the decree published on May 25th, 2011.
About the author Gustavo Calderón:
Gustavo Calderón, is a Lawyer and University Professor in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with more than 10 years of experience in Corporate Law and Real Estate Law. Mr. Calderón focuses his practice towards serving the expatriate population of the Riviera Maya.
