Mexican authorities detained more than 250,000 migrants in 2021

Data released by Mexico’s interior secretary this month shows that migrant detentions in Mexico have increased by 206 percent – growing from 82,379 in 2020 to 252,256 in 2021.

Although the detention numbers from 2020 are an outlier due to decreased migration during the initial phases of the pandemic, the data show the largest number of migrant detentions since 2001 – when Mexican migration statistics were first published, The Hill reported.

The data is representative of a trend in recent years which shows that migrant detentions in Mexico were increasing even before the pandemic, with 182,940 detentions in 2019, 131,445 in 2018 and 93,846 in 2017.

Even so, these figures pale in comparison to the 1.8 million migrant detentions reported by the U.S. in 2021 alone.

It is of note that Mexico's detention numbers only represent a portion of the region’s movement of people – as thousands successfully cross into the U.S. every year, while others stay in Mexico or are returned to their home countries.

Returns of migrants from Mexico to their home countries have varied with Mexico's migration policies. So far, Mexican authorities have returned upwards of 40 percent of the foreign nationals detained in 2021.

Over the past five years, a majority of migrants detained in Mexico have come from the so-called Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — along with an increased number of Haitian, Venezuelan, Cuban and Ecuadorian refugees in 2021.

The spike in migrant detentions in Mexico is perhaps reflective of increased cooperation between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Biden administration, which has offered substantial economic incentives in exchange for increased border cooperation.

In recent years, López Obrador has mobilized Mexico's National Guard — a force he created to combat organized crime — to take the lead on immigration enforcement.