TAPACHULA, Mexico — At 5 a.m. every Friday, a weekly ritual begins in this city on the Mexico-Guatemala border. For Haitians, it’s the only chance each week to meet with immigration officials.

In the pre-dawn darkness, people step off the sidewalks and form a single, silent line that snakes outside the offices of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR). Women cradle sleeping babies against their chests. Others shift their weight, shaking legs numb after hours of standing. The air is anxious and hushed, broken only by the scrape of shoes on pavement, the calls of food vendors, and the steady procession of trucks carrying produce into the city.

By the time dawn breaks, hundreds of Haitian migrants seeking asylum are already standing outside COMAR. Many arrived the night before, sleeping on the sidewalks or taking turns resting against the building’s walls. Some clutch paper folders, thick with documents. Others hold just their phones. By mid-morning, heat clings to their skin like a second layer of clothing.

Roberto, an ironworker in his 20s who asked that his last name not be used for fear it might hurt his asylum claim, first took part in the Friday ritual on Oct. 4, 2024. He had just arrived in Tapachula that morning and, without sleeping, headed straight for the city’s COMAR office – one of three, back then – to begin the asylum process. As mandated, Roberto returns every two weeks for a procedural check-in.

The Surge

Haitian Refugees in Mexico

From 2019 to 2025, roughly 47,000 Haitian nationals were listed as refugees in Mexico by the UNHCR.

From 2019 to 2025, roughly 47,000 Haitian nationals were listed as refugees in Mexico by the UNHCR. But increasingly, the number arriving from central America find themselves stuck in Tapachula. A key reason is Mexico’s policy that forbids asylum seekers from leaving the state where they first filed for protection.

Critics: Mexico’s migration system has fallen behind

An estimated 100,000 Haitians live in Mexico, Jesús Cisneros, Mexico’s ambassador in Haiti, said in a 2024 interview with Le Nouvelliste. More than 9,000 of 78,975 asylum applications filed in Mexico in 2024 were from Haitians, according to UNCHR-Mexico. Chiapas receives 60% of Mexico’s asylum applications.

The asylum process is supposed to last 45 business days. These days, with fewer COMAR staff members, the wait can take more than one year.

Asylum timeline comparison — Per UNHCR and Mexican immigration policies, the process should take 45 days. Haitians wait much longer. Illustration by The Haitian Times

Schwarz C. Méroné explained that the framework behind. “This is one of the difficulties in providing an adequate response,” Méroné said.

Migration Data 2022 — Durante 2022 ingresaron a México cerca de 40 millones de personas

Budget cuts, tighter US border impact felt

Conditions worsened after the U.S. cut its financial contributions. In one 2021 report by IMUMI, lawyers accused COMAR of exploitation. Asylum applications increased by 145 percent.

Geography of limbo

The 20-Minute Gap: COMAR consolidated offices center located on the outskirts.

COMAR Office
Community Hubs

‘I can’t even help myself’

Roberto lives that reality all too often, existing in a region with some of Mexico’s highest rates of unemployment and informal labor. As he waits, he is required to sign a COMAR attendance form to confirm that he wants to continue seeking asylum. Failure to complete the form, in COMAR’s eyes, means the applicant has left the arriving state and, therefore, abandoned their case.

Roberto, the native of gang-ravaged town — a notoriously gang-ravaged town just outside Haiti’s capital — would not mind waiting so long if he could work while doing so. Last November, he was sitting at a park in Tapachula’s downtown plaza , where scores of Haitians often wait to find odd jobs or talk with each other, when he shared his frustration.

“Every day I'm on the street looking for work, but I can't find anything,” he said. “Without documents, we can’t work, and we are people who strongly believe in working.”

Unable to find jobs in ironworking, his specialization in Haiti, Roberto seeks out construction sites. But jobs are sporadic. Often, he worries about paying his part of the $120 room he shares with two other people, and supporting his four siblings, the reason Roberto said he left Haiti in the first place.

“Every month you have rent to pay, you need to eat and you’re not working,” Roberto said.

A month later, when Roberto next spoke to The Haitian Times, he was still struggling. “I'm here without any help,” he said. “I can't think straight. My siblings call me asking for help, but I can't help them because I can't even help myself.”

Gallery

Life in Tapachula

Snapshots of daily struggles and resilience.

Haitians in Tapachula practice Spanish on a whiteboard after a class organized by local nonprofits. Photo by Anna Oakes for The Haitian Times.

Haitians in Tapachula attend a Spanish class organized by local nonprofits. Photo by Anna Oakes for The Haitian Times.

Haitians in Tapachula — a city in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas — continue to face longer waits as they make their way north. In November 2025, The Haitian Times captured images of many around town, many of them selling items to make ends meet. Photos by Mariana Hernández Ampudia for The Haitian Times.

Digital Witness

The "Haitiano Mexicano"

David Corrielan, 28, arrived in Tapachula in October 2025. He makes TikTok videos as El Haitiano Mexicano to help other Haitians navigate life in Tapachula.