US Response: Success or failure?
With the humanitarian crisis making headlines in the summer of 2014, many individuals became interested in finding solutions for the flow of unaccompanied children. As it was discussed in the previous blog, various expert solutions included immediate legal assistance as well as a long-term Central American-style Marshall Plan. But perhaps the one’s who were the most interested in finding solutions to the problem was the United States. During the months and years after the immigration crisis, the United States government implemented long and short-term policies to “control” the crisis. However, as it will be highlighted in this week’s blog, these policies were not always well thought or executed properly.
For instance, in the months following the crisis, the United States encouraged and financed Mexico’s Programa Frontera Sur(Southern Border Plan). SBP was announced at the height of the crisis on July 7, 2014 and aimed at managing migration in Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. The program in itself included increasing checkpoints, apprehensions, and deportations of Central American immigrants heading to the US. These objectives were executed with equipment like scanners and vehicles provided by the United States. In fact, at the end of 2015, US officials had committed to spend $150 million on a new biometrics system so Mexican authorities could track the immigrants it was detaining. As a result of American and Mexican efforts, according to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), from October of 2014 to April of 2015, Mexico apprehended 92,889 Central Americans compared to the 49,893 it had in the previous year. At the same time, US apprehensions of Central American citizens during the same period decreased from 162,751 (2013-2014) to 70,448 (2014-2015). In sum, the United States encouraged Mexico to take on the role of immigration enforcer. Therefore making it seem like US authorities were handling the humanitarian crisis. This encouragement and funding of Mexico’s Southern Border Plan is a clear example of American authorities failure of a well thought out short-term plan for the crisis.
Source: WOLA
In the long term, the United States response to the unaccompanied minor crisis was increasing funding for the Central American Regional Security Initiative. The Bush administration initially started CARSI in 2007 as part of the $1.4 billion Mérida Initiative, which included Mexico, Central America, Haiti and Dominican Republic security assistance. By 2010, the Central American component of the Mérida Initiative was spun off to CARSI. With the unaccompanied child crisis in the southern border, CARSI was seen as the program to invest in for long-term assistance to the region. In July of 2014, President Obama requested congress for $295 million to further aid Central America. Some of the goals of CARSI included strengthening weak government institutions while ensuring security of its citizens. However, in a recent study done by the Wilson Center, it found various weaknesses with the initiative. First, CARSI doesn’t “represent a security strategy but rather a number of programmatic initiatives with laudable goals that operate largely independently of each other” (CARSI Report, 4). This means that a lot of the programs that CARSI finances undermine or contradict one another. Moreover, CARSI has focused too much on drug law enforcement policies like incarcerations instead of community based methods that minimizes violence and crime. Lastly, according to the Wilson report, the increase in arrests has resulted in traditionally weak judicial systems to be overwhelmed. Therefore, increasing impunity in the region.
After a year passed since the height of the unaccompanied minors crisis in the southern border occurred, government authorities proclaimed real progress was being made to prevent this type of crisis from occurring again. However, as it has been highlighted above, the idea of progress is debatable. Even though the number of apprehensions in the southern border decreased, it was due to the American government outsourcing its problems to Mexico. Moreover, CARSI has failed to truly show its potential given the fact that people are still immigrating to the US. Therefore, US response to the unaccompanied minor crisis should not be considered as an adequate solution and by no means a success.
References:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20PDF_CARSI%20REPORT_0.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/12/16/unaccompanied-children-crossing-southern-border-in-greater-numbers-again-raising-fears-of-new-migrant-crisis/?can_id=27d437a167ec5a2313cdb797362bc990&source=email-todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-121615&email_referrer=todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-121615&email_subject=todays-headlines-jobs-with-justice-121615&link_id=9
http://www.wola.org/news/mexico_now_detains_more_central_american_migrants_than_the_united_states
http://www.wola.org/commentary/five_questions_about_mexicos_new_southern_border_program
