“Mexican Countries”
President Trump is threatening to “close the Southern border” because of his self-made migration crisis. Under international law and treaty, signed by the United States, migrants have the absolute right to enter the United States and ask for asylum. The United States is not required to grant the asylum requests, but treaty obligations require that those requests be adjudicated.
Instead, the President has significantly slowed the process of entry and adjudication. He has intentionally stacked migrants in the Mexican border towns, knowing that they will be under unrelenting pressure to cross the border, either legally or illegally, in order to make their asylum claim. This is why those found in the wilderness surrender to Border agents rather than run; they are looking for an agent to ask for asylum. So thousands, and now hundreds of thousands, are poised at the ports of entry, and risking hazardous treks through the mountains and deserts that make up much of our Southern border.
These migrants are in Mexico, but they are not Mexican. They have trekked across the length of Mexico from their home countries in the “Northern Triangle” of Central America. They are Guatemalan, Honduran, and El Salvadoran, people from three sovereign nations; not the “Mexican Countries” that Fox Newsreferred to in their Sunday morning broadcast.
Why are they leaving their homes and risking the thousand-mile trek to the US border?
Violence: the three nations of the Northern Triangle rank in the top ten nations in the world for homicides. Honduras has a rate of over 90 murders per 100,000 in population, ranking it the highest in the world. El Salvador was fifth, and Guatemala sixth on the list, making the Northern Triangle the most dangerous place in the world. Migrants are the poor, living in the most dangerous slums of those nations. They are most at risk for crime, and are choosing to leave rather than suffer (World Atlas).
Not only are these the most violent countries in the world, they are also among the nations most dominated by gang activity. El Salvador is ranked the worst country in the world for gang activity, with the MS-13 controlling the streets. To grasp the violence, think of MS-13 having more in common with the tactics of ISIS rather than the New York Mafia. Guatemala is ranked second worst, while Honduras is fifth (Business Insider). Gangs forcibly recruit boys and girls from the slums to become gang members; the alternative to not being in a gang is violence and death. No wonder parents are sending or bringing their children to “America.”
Gangs dominate life in these countries, and bribes and extortion becomes the way of life. The Honduran newspaper El Prenza estimates that El Salvadorans pay $390 Million in extortion fees every year, with Hondurans paying $200 Million. This is in nations where the vast majority of people live in abject poverty (CFR).
Poverty: the three nations rank near the bottom in per capita income. Honduras is ranked 170thout of 229 world nations, with an average per capita annual income of $5600. Guatemala is ranked 153rd($8100) and El Salvador 146th($8900). In contrast, Mexico is ranked 91stwith $19,900 average income, and the US 19thwith $59,900 (CIA.)
They have good reasons to leave, and face huge risks by staying. Whatever “disincentives” the Department of Homeland Security “creates” at the border, they are unlikely to match the risks these migrants face every day in their home countries. They are coming to America, because it’s the only choice they have.
The solutions are not at the border. The answer is in doing the hard work to make Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras places where people want to stay, not go. This requires a regional effort, by the United States, but also Mexico and Nicaragua and Panama and Columbia to intervene and change the environments there. Instead, President Trump has threatened to cut what little funding the United States is providing now.
Making things worse in the Northern Triangle will not improve conditions at the border. And making things worse at the border cannot equal the risks that these migrants face at home.
Though we are the leading provider of foreign aid to these countries, we obviously have not solved & cannot solve their problems for them. Though of course I can’t prove it, I feel confident in saying we could double our aid to each country & the problems would remain. Here’s an interesting article providing a fresh perspective & “third alternative” to never-ending supply of foreign aid vs consigning them to eternal squalor & the whims of violence. you might find it interesting. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/solution-caravan-crisis-honduras/573832/