Bus companies in Mexico no longer have the right to require immigration documentation from foreigners when purchasing tickets or boarding domestic flights. We are talking about a court decision, which changes such a practice, which was actually imposed on carriers by the migration authorities of the state.
The decision was rendered by the Tribunal Colegiado de Circuito under amparo proceedings and concerns practices that have developed in recent years as a result of directives from the National Institute of Migration of Mexico (INM). It was the migration service that sent official letters to carriers in the period from 2019 to 2021, essentially obliging them to check the migration status of passengers and from providing services to those who could not confirm the legality of their stay in the country.
The court declared this practice unconstitutional. The key conclusion of the court is that transport companies do not have the right to perform migration control functions. Current legislation, including the Migration Law (Ley de Migración), does not give them the authority to verify the legal status of foreigners in Mexico.
The court specifically indicated that the movement of a foreign citizen without migration status across the territory of a state using ordinary commercial transport is not considered a crime related to the illegal transportation of people. The Migration Service often used this thesis to justify strict checks on the roads. In other words, the court ruled that the transportation of illegal migrants by bus companies in itself cannot be considered a crime.
The court resolution obliges the migration service to reconsider its policy and convey clear instructions to carriers: the purchase of bus tickets and the use of intercity transport should not depend on the presentation of migration documents. It is planned to introduce mechanisms to monitor compliance with this approach at bus stations in order to eliminate the practice of random checks and failures in service.
The decision of the collegiate court does not change the powers of the state for migration control on bus routes, but strictly delineates the areas of responsibility. Checking the status of foreigners remains the function of the migration service, not private companies, and the migration service will continue to stop buses and check the migration status of passengers.