Smugglers could benefit from Trump's policies as immigrant families cross borders again | Immigration


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The increase in family apprehensions sparked questions in the El Paso region about whether coyotes are moving more immigrants away from the shorter routes commonly used to the United States on the US. Eastern Corridor, to bring them to a less traveled route in recent years. by Ciudad Juarez.

Director Ruben Garcia monitors the number of beds occupied in his shelter network at the nonprofit Catholic Announcement House to determine the number of immigrants crossing the border. It is at maximum capacity for more than a month. This is one of three increases he has seen over the past four years. He has operated Annunciation House for four decades.

"Smugglers are aware that" zero tolerance "has been closed and there is no family [detention] "Opening the facilities," said Garcia, "They are monitoring that – it's your livelihood and your credibility."

Violence between rival criminal groups makes it harder to cross the eastern corridor, said Arturo Fontes, a former FBI agent who has been tracking drug cartels like the Zetas. While major drug cartels have been fractured by internal conflict and government repression, many less criminal factions have emerged. Fontes calls these groups a "disorganized crime," and he and other experts note that it can be more difficult for Mexican officials to deal with many smaller cartels than he has. It was a little bigger.

The new President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador, will take office on 1 December. Security is one of the main challenges facing the country, which has about 130 million inhabitants. His future actions add another element of uncertainty for cartel-related smugglers who want to move customers north, Fontes said.

"It's a very delicate time right now," Fontes said. "There is a hurry to cross the US border because there is an unknown of what will happen when the new government [of Mexico] enter."

The Trump administration has been trying to stop the flow of families by sending delegations in recent months to speak with the highest leaders of Central American countries. The Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection was in Guatemala in September, discouraging migrants from making a dangerous northern trip and meeting with Guatemalan officials.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence told the Presidents of Honduras and Guatemala and the Vice President of El Salvador that the US government was willing to contribute to economic development if it did more to discourage migration and gang violence.

"If you do more, I'm here to say on behalf of the President of the United States and the American people, we will do more," said Pence.

And the administration seems ready to double the number of family separations if that is what is needed to reverse the trend.

Last Friday, The Washington Post reported that Trump administration officials were planning to implement a policy that would impose liability on parents when they cross the border: either accept the detention of the entire family until their parents resolve or voluntarily allow their children to be removed and placed in federal custody until their cases are resolved.

The ACLU said that it would oppose any attempt to expand the detention or separations of the family.

Even when the courts decide that immigrants do not have a valid claim for asylum, it can take years to send them home. A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security found that only one-third of asylum seekers who were declared invalid and entered the United States in 2014 had been sent back in September 2017. Only one-tenth of those traveling to families and the percentage of unaccompanied non-Mexican minors who entered in 2014 had been returned in September 2017.

In comparison, 92% of single adult Mexicans apprehended in 2014 were returned to Mexico in September 2017.

"In reality, we will not prevent people from coming because there is a real security crisis in Central America and Mexico," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, based in British Columbia.

The solution, said Selee, is to repair the asylum system. "It's the only population they did not understand what to do," Selee said. "Think about protecting those who are fleeing real violence and return those who do not have a valid claim."

Meanwhile, a group of Honduran migrants, whose numbers have increased from a few hundred to several thousand in just a few days, have recently joined forces to ensure the safety of their passengers and move north. On Wednesday, they had crossed the border with Guatemala.

This prompted Trump to tweet: "The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large caravan of people heading to the United States has not been stopped and brought back to Honduras, no further financial assistance will be forthcoming. would be paid in Honduras! "

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