The Mexican Senate took an important step yesterday when it in a floor vote approved to pass on to senate committees a PRD initiative to create a national Secretary of Migration, elevating the head of the National Migration Institute (INM) to federal rank. This is a hugely important step, as elevating the institute to a federal position would not only create much more visibility for the migrant issue, but hopefully allow for much more resources and coordination between federal, state, and municipal levels, and would directly bring in governors from migrant heavy state to sit in on its council. The initiative also contemplates much improved public attention to human and labor rights of migrants in Mexico, as well as to Mexicans abroad.
Meanwhile, in Chiapas, the PRD-led state Congress a few days ago went ahead on its own to create a "Commission to Protect Human Rights of Migrants" (Comisión para la Protección de los Derechos Humanos de Migrantes) and to guarantee passing through Chiapas the right to shelter, as well as rights to using health services and hospitals, and the protection of law. It's a but a step, as it will be a long-term process to put these rights into practice, but it is nonetheless a very significant one for migrants' rights
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