The News Roundup is a regular section of the blog, featuring news articles from various sources around the web, with the goal of providing an overview of the weekly conversation about the countries where MCC works in the region. Quotes in italics are drawn directly from sources and do not necessarily reflect the position of MCC.
Connecting the Dots: Emerging Migration Trends and Policy Questions in North and Central America
Owing to geographic proximity coupled with sustained historical, cultural, social, and economic ties, the migration patterns in North America and the Central American countries of the Northern Triangle will likely remain dynamic and multidirectional. This broader regional perspective acknowledges existing ties and transnational communities in all countries. Yet demographic and socioeconomic transformations in traditional places of origin are underway and will continue. This trend may translate into changes in the composition of the flows. For example, increasing numbers of Mexican and Central American migrants have higher levels of education and come from urban centers. As of early 2018, the potential effects of recent policy changes are uncertain. First, ramped-up immigration enforcement in the United States might not only deter new arrivals, but also accelerate the reversal of the flows and increase emigration elsewhere. The end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans and Hondurans (as well as Haitians and others), and the planned phaseout of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, might increase the number of foreign nationals leaving the United States—not necessarily back to their countries of origin, but to Mexico or Canada, for example. Of course, many may also opt to remain in the United States without work authorization or protection from deportation.
How A Guatemalan Village’s Fortunes Rose And Fell With U.S. Migration And Deportation
Some people had mortgaged their houses to pay for the journey to the United States, so when they returned and couldn’t pay the mortgages, they became homeless. Newly impoverished neighbors found it hard to help them. All the progress — the houses, the schooling, the land people had bought — suddenly looked very fragile. In some cases, deportations have resulted in even greater destabilizing effects. Some migration experts worry that an uptick in deportation from the U.S. could fuel organized crime in Central America.
U.S. aid for Mexico’s crackdown on migrants, however, continued to flow. In 2017, the departments of Defense and State implemented an $88 million program to increase Mexican immigration authorities’ capacity to collect migration data and share it with DHS, according to a WOLA report. The two departments are also funding a $75 million project to improve communications between Mexican agencies near the southern border. (As The Intercept previously reported, the U.S. government has also been increasing its Defense Department funding to Mexico for security assistance. State Department funding previously used to support Mexican capabilities is going down, while Pentagon funding is increasing.)
Migrant Caravans Are No Reason to Send the National Guard to the Border
All told, the current proposals to use the National Guard smell of political expediency more than good policymaking. Taxpayers would pay a hefty price tag for doing so, and the deployment would likely accomplish very little. It appears to be more of a political advertisement than a policy solution. All in all, deploying the National Guard is expensive, disruptive to Guardsmen’s families and employers, and—especially when done in an open-ended way—damaging to U.S. civil-military relations. This is absolutely the wrong way to go.
Migrant caravan that stirred Trump outrage seeks to end journey in Mexico City
For several years, migrants have traveled north in caravans through Mexico around this time of year, to protect themselves from crime and to highlight the plight of those fleeing Central America to escape poverty and danger. Trump’s comments have turned the event into a fresh source of tension between the United States and its southern neighbors. The Mexican government has denied that it is allowing the migrants to travel unimpeded across its territory.
Trump plays to his base on Central American migrant caravan — few will ever reach the US
As migrant rights advocates are quick to point out, overall unauthorized U.S. border crossings are at an historic low. Central American border crossings have risen in recent years, and requests for asylum by Central Americans rose 25 percent in fiscal 2017. It is difficult for Central Americans to receive asylum in the U.S. based solely on generalized violence in their countries, although sometimes U.S. courts have interpreted gang violence as a form of social persecution directed at children, teenagers or women. Trump’s Twitter frenzy since Sunday is not based on a substantial change in Central American migration. It will play well with his anti-immigrant base, however, especially in an election year. What it won’t do is provide any solution to the conditions in Central America that are propelling people to leave.
Trump’s angry tweets about Mexico? More fiction than fact
The U.S. trained Mexican immigration agents and donated surveillance towers and biometric data equipment. Today, Mexico’s southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco resemble border communities of Arizona and South Texas, with swarms of Mexican federal agents, militarized highway checkpoints and raids on hotels frequented by migrants…Human rights observers say increased immigration enforcement in Mexico has pushed migrants to take riskier routes and do business with powerful drug cartels that have entered the business of human trafficking. Migrant rights organizations in southern Mexico have also documented rights abuses by Mexican police and immigration agents, including incidents of agents, who are supposed to be unarmed, using pellet guns and electroshock weapons on migrants.
The Administration Is Rushing to Turn Trump’s Latest Immigration Tweets Into a Real Policy
It seemed likely that most of the group’s members would never reach the U.S. Many of the Hondurans said that they would be content to stay in Mexico if they could; their main concern had been escaping the immediate violence at home. One of them was María Elena Colindres Ortega, a Honduran who, until January, had been a member of the national Congress. “We’ve had to live through a fraudulent electoral process,” she told Reuters. “We’re suffering a progressive militarization and lack of institutions. . . . They’re criminalizing those who protested.” She was referring to the government of Juan Orlando Hernández, who in December won an election he had appeared to hijack in plain sight. The U.S. has continued to support him despite serial human-rights abuses and brazen authoritarian behavior, in part because he has promised to crack down on criminal gangs and drug trafficking.
Trump is not first president to deploy troops to US-Mexico border
An analysis by KXAN local news in 2016 found that most border arrests by state troopers were for drunk-driving and minor drug violations, not the smuggling of people or drugs. Overall, despite Trump’s rhetoric, there is no evidence of an immediate crisis that might call for a drastic response. Border crossings have declined significantly since the mid-2000s, and border patrol statistics show that the number of arrests on the south-west border – an indicator of the rate of illegal crossings – has plunged in this fiscal year compared with last. Apprehensions of unaccompanied children are down 36%, and those of families have fallen by 46%.
Activists say Mexico deports too many migrants, not too few
Advocacy groups have been sounding the alarm about the high rate of Mexican apprehensions and deportations in recent years, saying that the government is actually jeopardizing these migrants’ human rights by denying them the ability to make asylum claims, failing to protect them from victimization while traveling through Mexico, and then sending them back to life-threatening conditions at home.
Mexico Says It Will Disband The Caravan, But Organizers Say Some Of Its Members Will Continue North
“The US support for the Honduran military coup in 2009 and the electoral coup of November 2017 have intensified military and political repression, insecurity, and physical and economic violence,” the group said. “Hundreds of Hondurans have fled their homes and joined the refugee caravan in order to seek refuge in Mexico or the US.” A report by the United Nations Human Rights Office said 22 civilians and one police officer were killed in the protests that followed the swearing in of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández after a highly contested election last year. Additionally the report said people were being arbitrarily detained by Honduran authorities.
Caravan Trump Put in Spotlight Is Splitting Up in Mexico
Until now, Mexico’s government has figured out how to handle the country’s difficult relationship with Mr. Trump, being tough when national economic interests are at stake, but not rising to the bait when Mr. Trump insults the country. “The Mexicans have been astute,” Mr. Selee said. “They push back hard when national interests are at stake, rather than national pride.” Mexico’s mild reaction to the issue of the migrant caravan and sending National Guard troops to the border is a good example of this, Mr. Selee said. “But say something about the percent of auto content that has to be manufactured in the U.S., and they push back hard,” he added.
Inside an Immigrant Caravan: Women and Children, Fleeing Violence
In response to Mr. Trump’s tweets and his plans to militarize the border, the Mexican Senate unanimously passed a nonbinding statement on Wednesday urging President Enrique Peña Nieto to suspend cooperation with the United States on immigration and security matters — “as long as President Donald Trump does not conduct himself with the civility and respect that the Mexican people deserve.” Caravan organizers also said their intent was never to storm the border, especially not with a caravan of this size. While the original plan included the possibility of escorting the caravan to the northern border of Mexico, organizers had expected the group to mostly dissolve by the time it had reached Mexico City.
To Counter Misinformation on Caravan, This Site Is Letting Central Americans Tell Their Own Stories
Neta – a multimedia company based in Texas – has teamed up with Pueblos Sin Fronteras to amplify the voices of those in the caravan. “Neta has been helping Pueblo Sin Fronteras create videos since one of their caravans in 2017,” the platform tells Remezcla. “Since then, we’ve helped PSF by creating videos with audio from detained migrants, shared a story of a detained pregnant woman needing medical attention, and, now, curating and editing the footage filmed by immigrants in the current caravan traversing Mexico. Highlighting these videos filmed by the immigrants themselves as they are making their way to the US is a way for us to honor the dignity of immigrants by helping them be the agents of documenting their own story on their own terms. All we did was send the equipment. They are doing the rest.”