Central American Children at the U.S. Border
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The tens of thousands of children showing up on the United States/Mexico border have generated plenty of interest in the Latin American media. News outlets there have noted U.S. reactions, over reactions, and lack of reaction, the question of “security,” President Obama’s trip to Texas, and the political implications of the crisis. They have explored the causes, ranging from violence to lack of economic opportunity. The Pope, NGOs, editorialists and pundits, and the head of the OAS have all had a say. They have plumbed what it means for Mexico and Central America, and wondered what is to be done. They have followed the journey of migrants on “the beast,” and looked at the coyotes, and observed the deportation of the first batch of children by the Obama administration.
An “Unstoppable Tide” of Children
That is how Louisa Reynolds depicted the situation in Latinamerican Press of Lima. She wrote that the surge in unaccompanied Central American children and adolescents has generated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with detention facilities now severely overcrowded and scores of children arriving sick and dehydrated. According to the U.S.’s own figures, in the first five months of 2014 more than 47,000 unaccompanied minors were detained whilst trying to enter the U.S., a year-on-year increase of 92%, with most of the children coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, more often than not in search of parents already in the country.
In an attempt to find a solution to the crisis, Vice President Joe Biden extended his trip to Latin America which was scheduled to end on June 19 and added a last minute visit to Guatemala the next day where he discussed the issue with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Mexico’s Interior Minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and the coordinator of the Honduran cabinet, Jorge Ramón Hernández. During the talks, Central American leaders insisted that the children’s welfare and their right to be reunited with their parents should prevail above all other concerns, whereas Biden, on the other hand, urged them to dispel the myths that have arisen regarding the US government’s migration policy with regards to unaccompanied minors. “Make no mistake, once an individual’s case is fully heard, and if he or she does not qualify for asylum, he or she will be removed from the United States and returned home. Everyone should know that.”
Seven days after Biden’s visit, Guatemala’s largest media conglomerate which includes Prensa Libre, a national newspaper, the Guatevisión TV channel and regional newspaper El Quetzalteco, launched a campaign warning the population of the dangers of allowing children to travel to the US illegally and unaccompanied, and urging the government to improve security, education and employment opportunities for young people, in the hope that better living conditions at home will discourage young people from emigrating.
In Página/12 of Buenos Aires Gustavo Castillo García spoke with Jordán de Jesús Alegría Orantes of the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) en Chiapas, who noted that until recently there were few cases of minors traveling alone or accompanied by an adult outside their family to the United States. But now they represent 35% of the people who are rescued or arrested and repatriated. Alegría Orantes said that child migration is “worrying” because the procedures to return them to their homes is slower than with adults, and because of the risks involved in the journey itself from a place like Chiapas, where the routes used to evade the authorities take the children into unsafe areas, and through dangerous jungles and across rivers with strong currents. This is compounded by the fact that four out of ten or so are under the age of 12, some of whom are abandoned along the way.
In Prensa Libre of Guatemala City Sergio Morales reported that the migration of minors to the U.S. had not stopped, despite the campaign to discourage immigrants that had been initiated by the various governments about the risks of the journey and the likelihood of deportation. According to the Guatemala Consulate in Houston, Texas the campaign had yet to have much effect. “I thought the numbers of child migrants might go down, but that has not been the case,” said José Barillas, head of the consular office. He had also hoped the high summer temperatures would decrease the flow across the desert. Barillas stated that overcrowding in detention centers remained unchanged, and the consulates were having a hard time keeping up.
U.S. Responses and their Political Implications
Latin American media followed U.S. reactions, sometimes in disbelief. El Periódico of Guatemala City related that Texas Governor Rick Perry asserted that the “humanitarian crisis also represents “a national security crisis.” “From my point of view, the right decision is the immediate removal” of these children who arrive daily by the hundreds illegally to the United States, he added. They also reported that Perry “waved the flag” that these children can carry communicable diseases (“We have a reported case of H1N1 flu,” he said), and that he warned of the infiltration of the United States by members to drug cartels.
La Jornada of Mexico City reacted to the report that protesters in California formed a picket line on the road to protest the arrival of groups of undocumented migrants who would be processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol Station. Buses carrying children and families of immigrants were diverted to a customs facility in San Diego after the group of protesters, carrying American flags and banners, blocked the way. And in New Mexico residents packed a public meeting to express their outrage at the opening of a temporary detention center for Central American women and children.
Inside Costa Rica of San José wrote that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Central American nations to address the growing crisis, and met with the presidents of El Salvador and Guatemala, and the foreign minister of Honduras, while they were gathered in Panama for the inauguration of the country’s new president, Juan Carlos Varela. Appearing alongside the Central American leaders, Kerry acknowledged the region’s struggles with violence and poverty. He said the U.S. understands that people want to look for a better life. But he said the children flooding the U.S. border are being “exploited” and “put in great danger.” “There are rules of law and there is a process, and there is false information that is being spread about benefits that might be available to these young people who are looking for that better life,” Kerry said. “We need to work together to communicate to our people, to try to apply the law, and most importantly, to work with each of these countries to address the fundamental, underlying causes of this particular challenge.”
The Buenos Aires Herald noted that White House spokesman Josh Earnest said most of the border-crossers would not qualify for humanitarian relief that would allow them to stay in the United States. Those who possibly could qualify for asylum are children who have been victims of domestic abuse. Minors who fled Central America because of gang-related violence could have a harder time qualifying for asylum, according to immigration experts.
Many observers noted the less than polished response from the White House. Excélsior of Mexico City reported on President Obama’s visit to Texas, originally planned as a fundraising visit for Democrats, but in which he had been “trapped” by the immigration issue. The White House planned the trip without allowing for Obama to visit the border in South Texas. After learning the route of the president, Republican leaders criticized his “lack of interest” in seeing the situation firsthand. Spokesman Earnest responded that “The president is well aware of the situation that exists at the border.” And PáginaSIETE of La Paz said that the “wave of immigrants threatens to overwhelm Obama,” and pointed to the high numbers of deportations his administration has carried out.
Yet across the region observers were pretty sure where the true blame belonged. El Universal of Mexico City editorialized that it is clear who is standing in the way of finding an effective solution: “the Republican Party.” Though over the last twenty-five years the U.S. has spent “at least 100 billion dollars in strengthening the border fence,” undocumented migration from the south has not only continued, but has increased. Yet Republicans push for more of the same, and want more money spent on the fence. They are willing to ignore the conditions in the children’s home countries that would “scandalize the American public if they were observed elsewhere,” and leave the children to their uncertain fates. Universal noted what is just “plain and simple xenophobia and racism,” as well as Republican arguments that “immigrants are inherently criminal and transmitters of diseases.” They conveniently “forget that their own nation was built on the legacy of foreigners from all over the world.” They pointed to “the stubbornness of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.”
Folha de S. Paulo noted that Republicans were resisting freeing up resources to deal with the issue. President Obama requested $3.7 billion from Congress to address the “urgent humanitarian situation,” but Republicans, encouraged by leaders like Texas Governor Rick Perry, say his proposal “is not strong enough” to merit the resources. In El Espectador of Bogotá Santiago La Rotta wrote that Republican rhetoric “has painted Obama as a champion of immigrants,” although under his government the budget for the border patrol has grown 50% in five years and today there are over four thousand agents.
Proceso Magazine of Mexico argued that the migrant children have become a kind of “electoral currency” in the political game. While children pile up at the border, “Washington is mired in the bog that the problem has generated. Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of weak foresight or lack of character to solve what is already considered a humanitarian crisis.” But “rather than seeking sensible solutions, the political class has failed to address the situation, opting for attacking their opponents with an eye to the presidential elections of 2016.”
Coyotes and the “Beast”
In El Faro Magazine of San Salvador Óscar Martínez went straight to the source and spoke with a Salvadoran Coyote. He said “it makes me laugh when the media says children are going alone.” He noted that the smugglers take them, and got straight to the heart of the matter. Their parents, who are already in the U.S., want them there, and they’re willing to pay.
“Mr. Coyote” has been in the business since 1979, and “boasts of being one of the first Coyotes from El Salvador.” In fact, when he started in the trade, it was not illegal. He would publish advertisements for a “safe journey to America” in the pages of newspapers with the number of his office phone. He has seen the evolution of migration, from the exodus of migrants fleeing war and passing through Tijuana to Los Angeles in a few hours, through the 1990s, when the U.S. began construction of the wall, and now with the entrance of Los Zetas into the business, and a U.S. Border Patrol that now exceeded 18,000 agents.
He has seen thousands of Salvadorans go bravely with no papers, and how they continue to go, now more and more as children, even as the price climbs to over $7000. Now “it is big business” that is a lucrative business that exploits a “devastating human need,” that of “parents to be with their children.” Mr. Coyote’s view of the situation was echoed by Rubén Zamora, the outgoing Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, who “has his own explanation.” He notes that the Salvadoran-American community has been growing economically, and now that the situation in El Salvador seems more dangerous, many are sending for their children.
El Heraldo of Tegucigalpa wrote that Coyotes use “private customs” to smuggle migrants; police charge Coyotes to let them pass through immigration check points in Honduran and Guatemalan territory, according to research. Human traffickers use at least 13 farms that have become “private customs” points to cross the border with Guatemala from Honduras. The Special Operations Tactics Group (GOET), along with immigration authorities, detected the farms on the border in the western department of Ocotepeque. “Part of the land is on the Honduran side, immigrants come around, and pass over to the Guatemalan side,” said a commissioner of the GOET unit.
La Tribuna of Tegucigalpa told of “The Beast,” the freight train that many migrants take northward, and how infants that are still nursing are “literally thrown by relatives into the arms of Coyotes to be loaded on the train.” They wrote that “this suicidal action occurs daily with newborns that are carried by relatives or entrusted to other people to take them north, where a waiting relative will pay the fee.” Babies are often breastfed by their mothers before being tossed onto the train. Small children are pushed on as the train goes by.
Causes, Meanings, and Discussions of What is to Be Done
In Prensa Libre of Guatemala City Alfonso Alvarado spoke with Flora Reynosa, Advocate for the Uprooted and Migrant Population (Defensoría de la Población Desarraigada y Migrante of the Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos, or PDH), and Carol Girón, with the Migrant Child Project of the Pastoral Human Care (Proyecto de Niñez Migrante of the Pastoral de Movilidad Humana), who insisted that governments should act to promote a decent life for their citizens, and establish projects for the reintegration of deportees to curb child migration, or the problem will continue. Reynosa believes that along with extreme poverty, now insecurity and family reunification are driving people north, and Girón thinks we must address the causes of migration, especially the need for jobs that can provide a dignified life, as well as the question of safety, when many people are fleeing persecution or gang killings.
In El Periódico of Guatemala City Juan Carlos Zapata argued that Guatemalans are seeking economic opportunities. In the short term, it is important to adopt stiffer penalties for known Coyotes, since increased immigration controls at the borders will not dissuade people from entering what has become a more lucrative business. However, nothing will stop the migration if opportunities are not generated for work at home. According to the Department of Homeland Security of the United States, “most Guatemalans who come are from rural areas and are looking for economic opportunities.” Departments such as San Marcos, Huehuetenango and Quetzaltenango are not providing enough jobs to generate life chances and development, both of which in these regions is very limited. A basic reason is that invest in those departments, where productivity is so low, is very endemic. There must be more incentives; investment will not occur spontaneously.
Marco Cáceres wrote in Honduras Weekly of Tegucigalpa that Honduras should brace itself for what could be its worst public relations nightmare in recent memory. “The coup? Peanuts. All that ‘murder capital’ of the world stuff? Cakewalk. The tens of thousands of unaccompanied Honduran child migrants (along with children from El Salvador and Guatemala) who have been detained in Texas and Arizona has put new light on all that unpleasantness having to do with the violence fueled by the growth of drug trafficking and gang activity. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the illegal immigration problem (at least the latest edition of it) in the US is directly linked to that violence. That’s a PR challenge for Honduras in-and-of-itself.” How can they explain “why so many Honduran parents make the decision to send their children unaccompanied on such a dangerous journey?”
Prensa Libre of Guatemala City noted that Pope Francis warned in a letter about the “humanitarian emergency.” In his message, Francis pointed to the suffering of migrants around the world, but singled out the dangers faced by children, increasingly traveling alone from Mexico and Central America. The Pontiff called for the “attention of the international community to this challenge” and for measures by the countries involved. And El Periódico of Guatemala City indicated that José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS, intended to travel to Honduras to examine the problem. He would meet with leaders there to address the humanitarian crisis in an event organized by the Honduran Foreign Ministry and UNICEF. El Heraldo of Tegucigalpa said the notables would discuss migration from the point of view of young, in particular their vision of why it’s better to head north, as well as the causes of irregular migration. Finally, they would discuss the need for international protections of the rights of all migrants.
In El Universal of Mexico City Liliana Alcantara and Natalia Gómez noted that most Mexican unaccompanied migrant children who have been detained by the Border Patrol are in need of international protection because their lives and safety are at risk; 38% of them have been recruited for crime as smugglers, said the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). According to a survey by the UNHCR of 102 children who were under custody of the Border Patrol in Texas, 64% of children said they were Mexicans fleeing violence in the country, suffering assaults from members of their family, and also because they were being forced to join organized crime gangs that are trafficking in persons. Joseph Sieber, UNHCR Protection Officer in Mexico, said the detention of these children “is not the best response” to this humanitarian crisis and must at all times ensure the best interests of the child.
La Nación of San José editorialized that humanitarian tragedy is being driven by the fact that there is no coordinated strategy to halt or limit the migratory flow. They maintained that the countries involved in the origin, transit and destination of this particular wave of immigration have failed to adopt a coordinated strategy to curb or at least substantially limit the phenomenon. There is also plenty of blame for the U.S., where politicization of the debate has stymied any real progress toward a solution for a problem that is decades old.
In El Universal of Mexico City Carlos Heredia Zubieta called for “A Marshall Plan for Central America.” For the umpteenth time, Central America is in crisis and multiple voices are calling for a far-sighted initiative to rescue the region. The call has gone out in the 1960s, in the 1980s, in the 1990s, and in 2004. Now, in the summer of 2014, poverty and violence have generated surges of unaccompanied migrant children at the gates of the U.S., and there is talk once again of a Marshall Plan for the region. The original plan was proposed in 1947 to rebuild Europe destroyed by the Second World War by U.S. General George Marshall, who as a result received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. But why have so many initiatives fallen short in the region? Mesoamerica has gas and petroleum; it is a bio-diverse region that has forests, jungles and precious woods; fertile soil and water for agriculture. However, “the feudal economic and social structure of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and states of south-southeastern Mexico concentrates wealth and income, and makes for a predictable result: rich country, poor people. One in four Honduran and Guatemalan survive on less than two dollars a day.”
U.S. Deports First Central American Children
Prensa Libre of Guatemala City observed that “an airplane departed the U.S. with 120 people, 40 Honduras, 40 Salvadorans, and 40 Guatemalans,” said Unicef spokesman, Héctor Espinal. A government commission sent by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, with representatives of NGOs and headed by the first lady, Ana García Hernández, came to greet the Hondurans at Ramón Villeda Morales Airport in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. TalCual of Caracas characterized the U.S. approach as “Kids, Go home!” (And we don’t care what’s going on there.) They noted that the charter flight to Honduras arrived in San Pedro Sula, the city with the highest murder rate in the world.