Migrants Are Being Deported Back to Central America, But Home Countries Aren't Ready for Them Bradley Campbell - PRI's The World
go to original August 21, 2014

Salvadoran children at an after school violence prevention program drafted with money from USAID. (Jude Joffe-Block/KJZZ)

The journey from Central America to the United States to try cross the border illegally is dangerous. But so is going back home.

(This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview above.)

That's the flip side of the immigration crisis that's left thousands of women and children caught at the US border awaiting deportation. Jude Joffe-Block, a reporter for KJZZ in Phoenix, travelled to El Salvador to find out what awaits migrants who are forced to return home.

She hasn't see that big of a population return to El Salvador just yet. But there is a lot of anticipation on the ground that big numbers of people could return in the coming weeks and months. "These countries aren't setup for that right now," Joffe-Block says.

The US knows that, and is making American aid money available to Central American countries. Joffe-Block says that's a good indicator that those big numbers of migrants actually will be arriving: "The US is actually giving money to the 'North Triangle countries' of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to improve their infrastructure so that they are able to be ready when more women and children are arriving on planes."

That's right: Planes. While deportees heading to Mexico are often sent home by bus, the ones from farther south will be flown.

Read the rest at PRI's The World

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