Stop the Raids and Focus Instead on U.S. Policy Towards Central America CIP Americas Program
go to original January 14, 2016

Resistance & Outrage as Obama Administration Rounds Up Central American Refugees (Democracy Now!)

Statement from U.S. and Central American Groups Working on Human Rights, Immigrant Rights, Women’s Rights, U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin America Solidarity.

Over the last few days, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been rounding up and deporting dozens of members of Central American families seeking refuge from extreme violence and dire economic conditions in their communities of origin.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has described the move as part of an effort to “secure” the U.S. border and has announced that “additional enforcement operations such as these will continue to occur as appropriate.”

These raids are the latest chapter of what can only be described as a prolonged U.S. government war on migrant families, and specifically those coming from the most dangerous and economically deprived parts of Central America.

Following the public outcry generated by the mass detention of child migrants from Central America during the summer of 2014, the U.S. government enlisted Mexico’s security forces to carry out the dirty work of aggressively apprehending and repatriating migrants fleeing rampant violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (collectively referred to as the “Northern Triangle”).  With promises of economic assistance, the U.S. then successfully lobbied Northern Triangle governments to use their security forces to further suppress migration towards the United States

The U.S. government has also engaged in an unprecedented militarization of its southern border – as Secretary Johnson proudly stated, the U.S. has carried out “the largest deployment of vehicles, aircraft, boats, and equipment along the southwest border in the 90-year history of the Border Patrol.”

But, as the recent uptick in border apprehensions has demonstrated, all of these aggressive measures have failed to curtail migration from Central America.  They have only succeeded in driving migrants further underground, and exposing them even more to extortion, rape, abductions and physical assaults on their way north.  Migrants are fully aware of the risks posed by organized crime and abusive security forces and know that thousands have died or disappeared traveling through Mexico and into the United States.  But the horrific conditions in their communities remain a worse alternative.

The latest raids – targeting an immigrant population that UN officials and others have described as largely composed of refugees – are part of a cynical effort to keep Central American migration from becoming a damaging wedge issue and embarrassing the administration at a politically critical moment.

But it should be clear by now that deportation raids won’t discourage future migration or resolve the crises that drive people from their homes.

Instead, the U.S. needs to genuinely address the root causes of Central American migration.  To do so requires policy makers to take a hard look at existing U.S. policies toward the region, which have had and continue to have an enormous impact on its inhabitants: the war on drugs and economic policies that increase poverty, destroy traditional livelihoods and lead to the forced displacement of communities.

Read the rest at CIP Americas

Related: Immigration Officials Could Soon Knock on the Doors of 18,000 Central American Women and Kids (Think Progress)

Related: Migrant Activists Distrust Kerry’s Promise to Help Central Americans Fleeing Violence (VICE News)

Related: U.S. Decries Rising Violence in Central America But Will Continue Deportations (McClatchyDC)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!