A Honduran grandfather and his seven and
twelve-year-old grandchildren waiting in the
detention center in Tapachula, Chiapas, for deportation.
Photo by Alfredo Dominguez, La Jornada
The New York Times ran this editorial on June 16: Innocents at the Border. I have only minor disagreements with the content, but this editorial attracted 506 comments, and almost all of them were negative, along the lines of “Deport them. Deport every single one.”
This issue is a mine field for Democrats running for Congress this year. The Republicans have tried to get some traction with Benghazi, Obamacare, and “invade Iraq (or Syria, The Ukraine, Crimea, whatever)” and it isn't working. The Republicans desperately need an issue they can win on, so I would be surprised if they didn't turn their noise machine loose on this one.
Let's start with a fact: according to the Border Patrol, three-fourths of these unaccompanied children are coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, not Mexico. They, of course,
have to travel across Mexico to get to the US. This is dangerous. They hitch rides on freight trains, and are crime targets. They place a burden on Mexico's social services (see below). So, a regional approach is required to deal with this situation, and that is exactly what the Obama Administration is pursuing. Vice-President Biden went on a tour a couple of weeks ago to meet with Guatemalan President Ottawa Perez Molina, Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and high-ranking ministers from Honduras and Mexico. He also talked to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on the phone. President Obama has responded by phoning Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. The same group of Central American leaders are taking up the issue at the Ordinary Summit of Heads of State of the Central American Integration System (SICA) taking place in the Dominican Republic. Another top-level meeting has been organized in Nicaragua, to take place on July 16. And, just so that nobody gets the impression that this is all just talk, the Obama Administration has deported 27,140 Guatemalans so far this year.
"Don't travel alone, let's go together."
Cartoon by Helguera, La Jornada
Mexico's government is actually doing something, as well. The Mexico City newspaper La Jornada published an article on June 27 by Fabiola Martínez, En lo que va del año, México ha rescatado a 10,505 niños que viajaban a EU (“So far this year, Mexico has rescued 10,505 children traveling to the US”). Here's a translation:
At the end of 2014, Mexico will have rescued 16,000 children who were traveling through its territory to the United States, according to the Institute for National Migration (INM). Precisely 10,505 have been “rescued” so far this year, a 7.4% percent increase over the 9,727 rescued in all of 2013. INM warned of an increased northward flow of children, which is described by those responsible for Mexico's migration policy as a “humanitarian emergency”.
The Secretary of the Interior has proposed to his peers in the region (United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) to immediately put in effect an information campaign to discourage children from leaving their homes and make it clear that crossing to North American countries will not mean that they will be accepted as immigrants.
This proposal was raised by Mexico after a high-level meeting in Guatemala last week, and will be ratified today in another regional conclave on the subject.
The INM said that in the past nine months, state and Federal authorities have broken up 35 criminal gangs and have arrested 330 people suspected of assaulting undocumented migrants.
The National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) is dealing with children under 11 while their immigration status is resolved. They handle either the assisted return or the granting of refugee status in Mexico, and run detention facilities for those between 12 and 17 years. They use the word “rescue” for these processes.
Since 2007, the policy of the Child Protection Office has been giving priority to family unification and the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of children in turning them over to relatives.
Yesterday, Under Secretary for Population, Migration and Religious Affairs Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente traveled to Managua, Nicaragua, to participate at the 19th Regional Conference on Migration. The measures proposed by Mexico will be voted on by the delegates of the participating nations.
The main points are: addressing the problem with shared responsibility, operational support to comply with any agreement of the leaders of the nations participating in the upcoming summit of the Central American Integration System, and discouraging minors from leaving their communities.
In addition, they will share Best Practices of repatriation and intensify training of public servants for care for unaccompanied migrant and repatriated children.