2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Mexico

• Proactively determine trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators amongst weak populations.
• Vigorously examine and prosecute trafficking crimes, and search sufficient penalties for convicted traffickers, together with complicit officers, which ought to contain important jail phrases.
• Increase availability of safety companies.
• To forestall compelled labor amongst Cuban employees in Mexico, rent any Cuban employees straight and make the most of hiring practices which might be consistent with home and worldwide regulation, and supply sufficient safety to Cuban victims of human trafficking.
• Proactively display kids related to organized prison teams or FTOs for trafficking indicators and supply victims with sufficient safety and reintegration assist.
• Expand efforts to lift consciousness of trafficking, methods for victims to report trafficking crimes, and the dangers of trafficking throughout unlawful migration.
• Ensure victims aren’t unlawfully detained, or coerced into testifying or in any other case re-traumatized, significantly for victims who testify in opposition to members of organized prison teams.
• Strengthen efforts to carry labor recruiters, together with casual “enganchadores,” accountable for fraudulent recruitment practices that facilitate compelled labor in Mexico and overseas.
• Strengthen information assortment efforts amongst federal, state, and native authorities to trace progress on coverage implementation, assess efforts, and appropriately allocate sources.
• Implement procedures for prohibiting the importation of products produced by compelled labor.

The authorities elevated regulation enforcement efforts; nevertheless, the federal government’s information assortment on anti-trafficking efforts was unreliable.

The General Act on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Crime Related to Trafficking in Persons criminalized intercourse trafficking and labor trafficking, prescribing penalties of 5 to 30 years’ imprisonment and fines for intercourse trafficking offenses, and 5 to twenty years’ imprisonment and fines for labor trafficking. These penalties had been sufficiently stringent and, with respect to intercourse trafficking, commensurate with these prescribed for different grave crimes, akin to rape. Amendments to the anti-trafficking regulation in 2024 enhanced penalties for instances involving trafficking in individuals with particular enumerated vulnerabilities, akin to being pregnant, incapacity, and age. The regulation outlined trafficking broadly to incorporate unlawful adoption with out the aim of exploitation. Federal officers may train jurisdiction over all worldwide trafficking instances, all instances that happened on federally administered territory involving organized crime, and all instances involving allegations in opposition to authorities officers. States investigated different inner trafficking instances. The federal regulation utilized to each state and 30 states had extra state anti-trafficking legal guidelines. The 2012 regulation obligated every state to have a devoted human trafficking prosecutor; 30 of 32 states had specialised anti-trafficking prosecutors or items as of October 2024. The 2019 Asset Forfeiture Law allowed authorities to grab traffickers’ belongings, which can be utilized towards reparation to the sufferer.

The authorities reported initiating 661 new investigations in 2024 (392 for intercourse trafficking, 48 for compelled labor, and 221 for unspecified types of exploitation), a rise in contrast with 531 new and ongoing investigations in 2023. The authorities reported persevering with beforehand initiated investigations of at the very least 67 people in 2024, 28 for intercourse trafficking and 39 for unspecified types of exploitation. The State of Mexico didn’t report any investigations regardless of reporting probably the most investigations out of all states in 2023. The authorities initiated prosecutions of 162 suspects in 2024 – together with 49 by federal and 113 by state authorities – a rise in comparison with prosecutions of 110 suspects initiated in 2023 – 20 by federal and 90 by state authorities. Suspects included 84 alleged intercourse traffickers, 26 alleged labor traffickers, and 52 suspects for unspecified types of exploitation. Federal and state authorities additionally continued beforehand initiated prosecutions of at the very least 41 suspects. The authorities convicted 98 traffickers in 2024 – together with 9 by federal and 89 by state authorities – a lower in comparison with 182 convictions in 2023 – 61 by federal and 121 by state authorities. Authorities convicted 52 intercourse traffickers, eight labor traffickers, and 38 traffickers for unspecified types of exploitation. Courts convicted at the very least 64 of those traffickers underneath the anti-trafficking regulation.

Federal and state courts upheld three convictions on enchantment and acquitted one particular person. The authorities didn’t report full sentencing info. The state of Chihuahua achieved its first compelled labor conviction, sentenced the trafficker to 10 years in jail, and ordered cost of over 59,400 pesos ($2,931) in restitution to the victims. The authorities reported cooperating in 19 investigations with overseas counterparts.

Two specialised items, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes of Violence in opposition to Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on Organized Crime (FEMDO), prosecuted instances underneath Mexico’s federal anti-trafficking regulation. Since 2023, the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordination’s (CONASE) mandate was expanded to even be the lead company for coordinating human trafficking investigations amongst federal and state regulation enforcement companies. However, the federal government didn’t allocate extra funding to CONASE, limiting its capability to successfully implement its anti-trafficking tasks. Coordination throughout state and federal ranges continued to be sluggish.

The authorities beforehand recognized trafficking as extremely prevalent within the states of Guerrero, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz. Tlaxcala convicted 13 traffickers and Veracruz convicted 9 traffickers. Authorities in Guerrero once more didn’t convict any traffickers. The authorities, together with a number of states, reported offering anti-trafficking coaching, together with on sufferer identification, to regulation enforcement, the National Guard, hotline operators, and judicial officers, generally in collaboration with worldwide organizations. Officials additionally participated in trainings performed by worldwide organizations.

Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained important considerations. The authorities took motion to carry complicit officers accountable in some instances. The state authorities of Tlaxcala convicted and sentenced a former police officer to 33 years in jail for intercourse trafficking. A decide filed complaints in native and federal courts in opposition to a former Sinaloa Supreme Court Justice for alleged human trafficking and different crimes, and famous the investigation had been obstructed on account of impunity and conflicts of curiosity. Authorities initiated an investigation of officers from the state of Quintana Roo for his or her alleged involvement in a trafficking community. The Chiapas Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation of senior authorities officers for his or her alleged involvement in human trafficking.

The authorities maintained safety efforts.

The authorities reported figuring out 860 victims in 2024 (795 by federal and 65 by state officers), together with 343 intercourse trafficking victims, 75 compelled labor victims, and 442 victims of unspecified types of exploitation; nevertheless, some states didn’t present full yr information and others supplied none. This was a rise from 467 victims recognized in 2023, together with 213 intercourse trafficking victims, 154 labor trafficking victims, and 100 victims of unspecified types of exploitation. The authorities didn’t report full disaggregated information on recognized victims; intercourse trafficking victims included at the very least six males, 162 ladies, 9 boys, and 112 women; compelled labor victims included at the very least 15 males, three ladies, 30 boys, and 25 women; and victims of unspecified types of trafficking included 117 males, 224 ladies, 26 boys, and 72 women. The authorities recognized 49 overseas victims – 32 in intercourse trafficking (three from the United States, seven Argentines, one Chilean, 11 Colombians, one Guatemalan, 4 Venezuelan, and 5 of unknown nationality), two Guatemalan victims of compelled labor, and 15 in unspecified types of trafficking (one Colombian, 13 Cubans, and one Guatemalan).

Some companies had SOPs for sufferer identification and help; nevertheless, gaps in sufferer identification remained. Victim referrals to service suppliers had been largely advert hoc and procedures diversified from state to state, with most shelters counting on prosecutors to make selections on the supply of sufferer help on a case-by-case foundation for grownup victims and Department of Family Development officers to refer youngster victims. SOPs lacked formal procedures to display for victims amongst some weak teams, together with kids apprehended for alleged gang-related prison exercise and migrants in detention services. NGOs reported authorities didn’t successfully determine and refer potential victims. Authorities didn’t persistently display for trafficking indicators amongst weak teams together with migrants and asylum-seekers, together with these searching for to enter the United States illegally, or when apprehending people in business intercourse and compelled criminality; this restricted alternatives to determine trafficking victims being inappropriately penalized, detained, or subjected to immigration enforcement, solely for illegal acts dedicated as a direct results of being trafficked. Lack of screening additionally precluded sufferer identification amongst teams of migrants apprehended throughout regulation enforcement operations, together with some despatched to southern states.

Labor inspectors had a protocol for figuring out suspected compelled labor victims throughout routine inspections of formally registered companies and farms and will reply to complaints alleging compelled labor. Authorities didn’t display Cuban regime-affiliated employees in Mexico, together with medical professionals, for indicators of compelled labor, regardless of proof the Cuban regime continues to revenue from the compelled labor of employees. Consular officers adopted a protocol for figuring out and offering help to Mexican victims overseas, however the authorities didn’t report victims recognized or assisted in different nations.

The authorities reported allocating 1.46 million Mexican pesos ($71.6 million) for sufferer care. The authorities didn’t present full information on sufferer companies and never all states reported information. Federal and state authorities reported referring at the very least 80 victims (199 in 2023), together with 38 intercourse trafficking victims, 25 compelled labor victims, and 17 victims of unspecified types of trafficking, to service suppliers. Federal and state authorities reported 381 victims, together with 51 exploited in intercourse trafficking, 20 exploited in labor trafficking, and 310 in unspecified types of trafficking, acquired authorities or government-supported companies. This was a rise from 2023 when federal and state officers reported 118 victims, together with 50 exploited in intercourse trafficking, 18 exploited in labor trafficking, and 50 exploited in unspecified types of trafficking, acquired authorities of government-supported companies. The state of Tamaulipas reported aiding within the repatriation of 1 overseas labor trafficking sufferer. Civil society reported offering companies with out authorities assist to 282 victims (126 exploited in intercourse trafficking, 79 in compelled labor, and 77 in unspecified types trafficking). Amendments to the anti-trafficking regulation in 2024 included necessities for authorities to assist victims attain complete reparations and empowered states to determine shelters and transitional housing for victims.

The authorities reported offering medical and psychological care, safety throughout judicial processes, shelter, authorized help, and reintegration assist to victims, typically in partnership with NGOs. However, sufferer companies diversified all through the nation; had been unavailable in lots of areas; and had been significantly insufficient for male victims, compelled labor victims, and victims in rural areas. There had been no authorities or NGO trafficking shelters that accepted males and few that accepted boys older than 13, limiting entry to specialised companies for male victims and victims with teenage sons of their care. Medical and psychological assist typically didn’t lengthen past cursory evaluations. Shelters on the state and native ranges sometimes housed victims solely throughout a prison trial and long-term reintegration companies had been very restricted.

An worldwide group reported there have been 15 specialised shelters for trafficking victims, together with two that supplied specialised companies for overseas trafficking victims – all funded straight by the federal authorities and eight managed by NGOs. Other shelters for victims of crime may help trafficking victims all through the nation and an knowledgeable reported that 39 NGOs in Chiapas operated shelters for migrants that might additionally help trafficking victims. Government shelters restricted residents’ freedom of motion and restricted their participation in outdoors actions, on account of official security considerations.

By regulation, overseas victims had been eligible to obtain the identical companies as Mexican victims, no matter immigration standing. Some state governments required victims to file complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office to obtain safety companies; nevertheless, specialised prosecutors’ workplaces had been primarily situated in main cities which restricted the power of victims in rural areas to file complaints. Some states additionally required victims to acquire official sufferer standing previous to being referred to a shelter operated by the federal authorities. Courts may allow victims to supply testimony through video or pre-recorded or written statements. However, specialists reported officers didn’t use victim-centered, trauma-informed interview methods. State governments reported victims periodically cooperated within the investigation and prosecution of traffickers. The authorities reported offering victim-witnesses with psychological and authorized help, bodily safety, and specialised help for victims with disabilities throughout courtroom proceedings. The authorities didn’t report allocating sources to diplomatic missions to supply help to Mexican trafficking victims overseas, in contrast with 2 million pesos ($118,000) allotted in 2023.

Media reporting indicated officers in Quintana Roo screened for trafficking indicators throughout at the very least one regulation enforcement operation the place potential trafficking victims had been recognized. Trafficking victims had been typically terrified of reporting abuses on account of a distrust of authorities and worry of punishment, deportation, or different repercussions. The authorities didn’t report offering humanitarian visas to trafficking victims in 2024, in comparison with 9 in 2023. Humanitarian visas enabled overseas trafficking victims to legally stay and work within the nation for as much as one yr, which could possibly be prolonged; this profit was not depending on a sufferer’s willingness to take part in a prison trial. The regulation gives a mirrored image interval of 30 days for overseas trafficking victims.

The anti-trafficking regulation required judges in prison instances on the state and federal ranges to order traffickers to pay restitution to victims and victims may file civil fits in opposition to traffickers for damages. The authorities reported at the very least 16 instances during which courts ordered traffickers to pay restitution to victims; nevertheless, it didn’t report if the victims collected the damages awarded in trial. The anti-trafficking regulation mandated the institution of a fund to cowl restitution funds traffickers had been unable to pay; nevertheless, the federal government has not created this fund. The authorities supplied compensation for 49 victims totaling $2,433,411 by a separate fund in 2024.

The authorities maintained prevention efforts.

The anti-trafficking fee (the Commission), led by the Secretariat of the Interior of the Federal Government (SEGOB), coordinated efforts amongst authorities companies and civil society organizations, and met 3 times throughout the reporting interval. The authorities continued implementation of its 2022-2024 NAP; nevertheless, it didn’t report drafting and adopting a NAP for 2025 and past. The Commission reported funding analysis on populations weak to trafficking, regional coordination in combating trafficking, and the identification of migrant trafficking victims. Coordination challenges amongst federal, state, and native authorities and the absence of a coordinated system to trace progress and information on anti-trafficking regulation enforcement and sufferer safety efforts made it tough for authorities to confirm statistics, assess efforts, and appropriately allocate sources.

The authorities operated a nationwide human trafficking hotline and on-line chat, which supplied 24-hour help in Spanish and English. The nationwide hotline reported receiving 1,251 calls throughout the first six months of 2024 and referring 305 to regulation enforcement for investigation, in contrast with referring 108 calls in 2023. Hotline employees may present potential victims with authorized and psychological help. Federal and state authorities performed anti-trafficking coaching and consciousness applications for presidency officers and residents, in public and digital areas, together with on trafficking indicators and reporting potential trafficking instances. Experts beforehand famous prevention campaigns insufficiently reached high-risk teams akin to kids, rural and Indigenous communities, and non-Spanish audio system.

The authorities had a contractual settlement with the Cuban regime to rent Cuban regime-affiliated medical professionals. Authorities didn’t report efforts to stop compelled labor amongst these employees. In 2024, the federal government drastically elevated the variety of Cuban regime-affiliated employees to three,650 from 800 in 2023. Government officers confirmed paying the Cuban regime straight for employees’ companies with out oversight to make sure employees acquired sufficient compensation. The authorities continued to pay the regime straight, facilitating the confiscation of employees’ wages. According to a report, the federal government paid the Cuban regime 45,000 to 60,000 pesos ($2,174 – $2,898) a month per employee, whereas Cuba paid $130.40- $173.90 month-to-month to every employee; an quantity considerably beneath the essential minimal wage.

The Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) didn’t make use of a enough variety of labor inspectors, hampering strong and constant enforcement of labor legal guidelines. Furthermore, the 510 labor inspectors had a restricted mandate for conducting oversight of working situations in casual companies and farms – which employed greater than half of Mexican employees. A 24-hour advance discover requirement for routine inspections hampered their effectiveness once they did happen. Labor inspectors recognized 4 victims in 2024 and referred them to safety companies. Federal labor regulation required employment companies and labor recruiters to hunt authorization from and register with STPS to function and prescribed fines for non-compliance. The regulation additionally prohibited recruiters and labor brokers from charging charges to employees and employers from passing company charges to employees within the type of wage deductions. However, the federal government didn’t report fining any employment companies for violations, and plenty of casual labor recruiters – generally known as “enganchadores” – evaded authorities oversight and dedicated exploitative practices with impunity. The labor regulation required employers pay wages weekly; employers who withheld wages to maintain an worker in compelled servitude is also charged underneath the anti-trafficking regulation, although in apply the federal government didn’t successfully implement this factor of the regulation.

The STPS had pointers for implementing laws prohibiting the importation of products produced with compelled labor; nevertheless, the federal government didn’t report investigations or restrictions of such imports throughout the reporting interval.

The regulation required authorities to concern non permanent paperwork to undocumented migrant kids and their grownup caregivers, granting authorized presence in Mexico whereas the federal government performed a finest curiosity willpower for the kid. The authorities participated in a program with authorities within the United States to restrict the entry into Mexico of intercourse offenders convicted within the United States. The Government of Mexico reported it denied entry to at the very least 122 registered intercourse offenders in 2024. The authorities reported conducting consciousness campaigns to discourage the demand for business intercourse acts. Amendments to the regulation in 2024 required the Ministry of Tourism design applications and public insurance policies to discourage the demand for extraterritorial business sexual exploitation and abuse. However, the federal government didn’t report investigating or prosecuting any suspects for extraterritorial business youngster sexual exploitation crimes. The authorities didn’t present anti-trafficking coaching to its diplomatic personnel.

Trafficking impacts all communities. This part summarizes authorities and civil society reporting on the character and scope of trafficking over the previous 5 years. Human traffickers exploit home and overseas victims in Mexico, and traffickers exploit victims from Mexico overseas. Traffickers recruit and exploit Mexican ladies and kids and to a lesser extent, males, in intercourse trafficking in Mexico and the United States by false guarantees of employment, misleading romantic relationships, or extortion. Most trafficking instances happen amongst household, intimate companions, acquaintances on social media, or by fraudulent employment-related schemes. Local specialists report a excessive prevalence of kid intercourse trafficking in Tlaxcala, the place mother and father or different members of the family are sometimes complicit in facilitating these crimes. Powerful family-run networks goal and seduce women locally or different states, then exploit them in intercourse trafficking in Mexico or the United States. Traffickers more and more recruit potential victims on-line, together with through video video games, social media, web sites, and relationship functions, and promote pictures of intercourse trafficking victims through social media; an NGO reported from 2022 to 2024 over 45 % of victims who known as the anti-trafficking hotline had been initially recruited by web sites or social media. Traffickers use express deepfake pictures of youngsters generated by synthetic intelligence to coerce youngster victims. The authorities reported extraterritorial business youngster sexual exploitation and abuse was prevalent, particularly in vacationer areas and in northern border cities. Authorities reported trafficking networks more and more used cryptocurrencies to launder proceeds from their crimes. Traffickers exploit Mexican adults and kids in compelled labor in Mexico and the United States in sectors together with agriculture, home service, childcare, fishing, herding livestock, manufacturing, mining, meals processing, building, tourism, begging, and avenue merchandising. Traffickers generally exploit day laborers and their kids in compelled labor in Mexico’s agricultural sector, with most victims coming from economically weak populations. Individuals are in danger to trafficking in agricultural areas in harvesting greens, espresso, sugar, and tobacco. “Enganchadores” steadily make use of misleading recruitment practices and cost illegal charges to put agricultural employees in Mexico and the United States; many employees are promised respectable wages and a great way of life, then subsequently compelled into compelled labor by debt bondage, threats of violence, and non-payment of wages. Most overseas victims of trafficking in Mexico are from Central and South America, significantly El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela, with Venezuelan victims growing lately; traffickers exploited a few of these victims alongside Mexico’s southern border. The Cuban regime subjected employees in Mexico to wage confiscation and positioned unreasonable restrictions on their actions that didn’t align with worldwide requirements on the well being and security of employees. According to an NGO, between 2022 and 2023, at the very least 48 Cuban employees had escaped. The Cuban regime probably compelled regime-affiliated professionals in Mexico to work.

Organized prison teams and FTOs exploit kids and adults in intercourse trafficking and compelled criminality, together with within the manufacturing, cultivation, transportation, and sale of medication; extortion; arms trafficking; alien smuggling; theft; and kidnapping. Organized prison teams and FTOs make the most of fraudulent job ads, financial or social manipulation, torture, threats of homicide, blackmail, intimidation, or kidnapping to compelled or coerce adults and kids into intercourse trafficking and compelled labor, together with compelled criminality. These organizations additionally exploit people’ drug dependencies to coerce them to interact in prison actions. Children dwelling in territory managed by prison organizations are at greater danger of trafficking as prison teams improve youngster recruitment for illicit exercise. Organized prison teams, together with the FTO Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), function on-line rip-off operations from casual name facilities in Jalisco state concentrating on timeshare homeowners within the United States and Canada; media stories have documented indicators that native employees are recruited underneath false pretenses of official name heart work and subsequently compelled into prison scamming exercise by threats and violence, together with disappearances and homicide.

Aliens – together with unaccompanied kids, asylum-seekers, or these searching for to illegally immigrate to the United States – are weak to intercourse trafficking and compelled labor, together with by organized prison teams, and are sometimes fearful to report abuses on account of retaliation. Such aliens, who typically depend on smugglers, are at significantly excessive danger of exploitation as many assume money owed to pay smugglers and are exploited to “pay off” unmet ransom calls for. Migrants and unlawful aliens are sometimes kidnapped by organized prison teams, more and more in southern states, who demand ransom for his or her launch or power them to contact their households for cash transfers, which exposes them to repeated kidnappings and will increase their vulnerabilities to debt bondage, thereby driving additional earnings for prison organizations. These crimes are sometimes perpetuated by organized prison teams and FTOs such because the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, and Tren de Aragua, since they management most alien smuggling routes. Ongoing armed battle between organized prison teams, together with between the Sinaloa cartel and CJNG in Chiapas, has displaced communities, additional exacerbating their vulnerabilities to trafficking, together with compelled criminality, as people face the chance of compelled recruitment by cartels searching for to broaden territorial management. Observers, together with Mexican legislators, famous hyperlinks between violence in opposition to ladies and women and disappearances, murders, and trafficking by organized prison teams. A community-based self-defense armed group in Guerrero, established to guard native populations from organized crimes, recruited kids for his or her armed faction.

Trafficking-related corruption stays a priority. Some present and former authorities officers facilitated or participated in trafficking crimes. Media and NGO stories alleged incidents of Mexican authorities extorting migrants for cash, at instances taking away identification paperwork, and generally colluding with organized prison teams to facilitate kidnapping and ransom schemes, growing their vulnerabilities to trafficking.