Cancun, Q.R. — Four years after installing digital kiosks in Mexican international airports, authorities say they are finally up and running. The digital kiosks that operate in most every other global international airport are only now being validated in Mexico.
After four years of collecting dust, the digital immigration machines were activated after a reform in the Migration Law. Passengers in Cancun, Los Cabos and Mexico City will be the first to use the INM machines.
In a statement, Miguel Torruco Marqués, Secretary of Tourism, announced that on April 29, a reform to Article 35 of the Migration Law was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), which was unanimously approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Tourism Commissions.
“For more than two decades, the sectors related to tourism have insisted on the modernization of migratory services to avoid bottlenecks at airports. Yesterday the reform to Art. 35 of the Migration Law was published in the #DOF,” he posted on social media.
The reform will allow the use of automated technology for the entry and exit surveillance of Mexico. He explained that the reformed Article came into affect April 30, which now allows the use of technology to digitize immigration procedures in the hands of the immigration authority.
He emphasized that for more than two decades, “all sectors related to tourism have been insisting on the modernization of immigration services to avoid frequent bottlenecks, especially in the busiest airports in the country such as Cancun, Mexico City and Los Cabos, to name the three most representative and affected by delays and mistreatment,” he said.
Torruco said that for the past month, he was instructed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to deal with the issue, which began with transferring authority to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) headed by Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón.
“The Secretaries of the Interior, Public Function, Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, and Tourism have been working hand-in-hand to achieve the reform starting with a working group,” he added.
Torruco stressed that the SRE will continually follow up on this sensitive issue in addition to installing more passport issuing offices.
“Fortunately, the presidential instruction has been decisive in resolving the age-old problem,” he said adding that now, “the strategy is in the hands of the SRE” to solve the problem of a demand that has been ongoing for more than two decades.
