“Mexican Factory” in Chiapas: Birth Certificates Sold to Migrants for $4,000

“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat 

Is nationality for sale? In Tapachula, a corruption ring is charging up to $4,000 to issue official birth certificates to migrants. The Chiapas Attorney General's Office is already investigating the Civil Registry following an alert from the Mexican Embassy in Houston.

In Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexican nationality has become a commodity. An investigation has revealed the existence of a black market for birth certificates, where migrants—primarily of Cuban origin—pay thousands of dollars to go from being undocumented foreigners to "Mexicans" born in southern Mexico in a matter of months.

The cost of becoming a Mexican national: 70,000 pesos

Testimonies reveal that the illegal process isn’t cheap. A Cuban migrant confessed that the prices vary drastically depending on the urgency and the contact person.

“It's possible, but only for those who can afford it... they ask for 15,000, some 20,000, and that's what they've offered me, but at the very least, it has cost 4,000 (dollars)...” the witness revealed. At the current exchange rate, this represents more than 70,000 Mexican pesos for a document that allows them to apply for a national identity card (INE), a passport, and travel freely north or apply for humanitarian visas.

International Alert: The Embassy in Houston

The fraud escalated to diplomatic levels. On January 22, the Mexican Embassy in Houston, Texas, issued an alert after detecting a series of suspicious documents. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) identified an alarming pattern: birth certificates on official paper and in completely legal formats, but without a real birth registration or certificate to back them up in the official records. They are authentic documents with false information.

The Corruption Network: From the INM to COMAR

For civil organizations, this is only the “tip of the iceberg.” Luis García Villagrán, director of the NGO Pro Migrante in Tapachula, denounced that this document trafficking network has been operating for years with the complicity of federal officials.

“We used social media to expose the corruption... many people, officials who are currently at COMAR, were previously at the National Migration Institute, and vice versa. It's a perfectly established network of corruption,” the activist stated.

Blow to the Civil Registry

Following the Foreign Ministry's complaint, the Chiapas Attorney General's Office intervened. Attorney General Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca confirmed that after an audit of the Civil Registry's internal control body, anomalies were detected in the computer systems.

“Anomalies were detected... Three men who worked there at the civil registry were issuing birth certificates,” the prosecutor reported. However, the question remains: Will the federal officials who validate these documents at airports and checkpoints be investigated?  Meanwhile, the "Mexican factory" at the southern border continues to be a lucrative back door for the flow of migrants.

Source: Fuerza Informativa Azteca