2 Mexican Immigration Officers Fired for Deporting Citizens

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government has fired two immigration officials for deporting seven fellow citizens who could not produce official citizenship documents. The officials apparently thought the seven were from Guatemala.

The fired officials could also face criminal charges, Mexico’s Migration Institute said.

The two officials worked at a migration office in the border state of Sonora, across from Arizona. The four men and three women from Chiapas apparently were on their way to the United States to find work but lacked official citizenship documents. After being sent to Guatemala, they returned to Chiapas.

The incident revealed the government’s occasional difficulty in dealing with Mexico’s ethnic diversity. Until the 1800s, Chiapas was part of Guatemala and continues to resemble that country as much as it does Mexico. As in Guatemala, most residents are dark-skinned people of Indian descent. It is not uncommon for impoverished Indians in Chiapas to lack official documents.

After the deportations were revealed, local media mocked the official procedure of asking history questions to confirm a person’s claim of Mexican nationality. A government guidebook instructs immigration officials to ask people about Doroteo Arango--the real name of revolutionary hero Pancho Villa--among other historical facts.

In an informal survey, many Mexico City residents were stumped by the questions.