Biden's Migrant Policy Worsens Central America's Problems

When Vice President Emptyhead visited Mexico last year, she cited poverty, crime, and political instability as "root causes” driving millions of migrants to cross the U.S. border.

But some critics with regional expertise say Biden administration policies, which migrants have interpreted as an invitation to travel north, have severely worsened those root causes, destabilizing large swaths of Central America and Mexico. The torrent of people moving across the region has delivered billions of dollars to the coffers of human smuggling rings and the drug cartels that have taken advantage of America’s overwhelmed border patrol to deliver fentanyl and other deadly substances to the United States.  

Criminal organizations, these experts say, have stoked rampant corruption, especially in Mexico, as they pay bribes to police and other local officials to ease passage of their cargo. The migrants themselves are prey to gangster elements that, according to one account, leaves more than two-thirds of them victims of crime and nearly one-third of the women subjected to sexual assaults.  

“Mexico is probably one of the most dangerous places for the transit of migrants,” said Dr. Juan Luis Hernandez Avendano, rector of the Ibero-American University of Torreon-Monterrey-Saltillo, who has been an outspoken critic of the surging corruption in his country.  

“And despite this, the routes to enter the United States continue to be fed not only by Central Americans, but increasingly by Caribbeans, and according to reports from the Jesuit Migrant Service, more Asians and Africans,” Avendano told RealClearInvestigations. “In effect, we are experiencing a humanitarian crisis, since they are not only extorted by the cartels, but also subjected to labor and sexual slavery. It has gotten worse because Venezuelan migration has joined” the human tide.

Avendano has been sharply critical of the situation for years, going so far this year as to declare swaths of Mexico “failed states” for the inability of authorities to protect native Mexicans and illegal immigrants, and the increasing corruption and unreliability of federal forces and local authorities.

AP
Vice President Kamala Harris, in Guatemala a year ago June, on a tour of the region when she vowed to address "root causes" of the United States' immigration problem.
AP
While much attention in the United States has focused on the problem caused by migrants at the border, Avendano is part of a growing chorus of people who say the Biden administration’s policies are exacerbating problems to the south. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The illegal immigration surge shows no signs of abating, although on Oct. 12 the administration quietly reinstituted so-called Title 42 measures that have blocked entrance for many Venezuelans. Another monthly record for encounters was shattered in September, according to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, and the 227,000 total for that month was 11% higher than the figure for August.   

Encounters with illegal immigrants are up 37% in 2022 from 2021, and to date more than 3 million have crossed into the U.S. since Biden’s inauguration. To put that number in perspective, the total number of illegal immigrants under Biden would top Chicago’s population to become the 3rd largest city in the U.S. The border crossers would constitute the union’s 34th largest state, exceeding the population of Mississippi and nearly equaling that of Arkansas.

Although the administration has claimed that the border is secure and that it has told migrants not to come to America, it has instituted many policies they see as welcoming. This began on President Biden’s first day in office, when he declared that no one would be deported for 100 days.  

These policies have helped empower criminal elements. The fees paid to smugglers by this human flood have put an additional $2.6 billion into Mexican criminal cartel coffers in the past 12 months, according to an October analysis by the Washington Times. The profits have risen along with the price, as immigrants now pay roughly $8,600 in smuggling fees if they start their odyssey in Mexico, while those starting farther south can pay $11,500 or more. And those figures do not include transportation fees or bribes immigrants must pay to cross various borders across the Central American isthmus.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/11/03/bidens_latin_root_causes_policy_makes_them_worse_regional_critics_say_862472.html

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************