In the last edition of the Tribuno del Pueblo a link was provided to the 60 Minutes interview with AMLO (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador) the current but outgoing President of Mexico. The interview was done in response to growing pressure from the Biden Administration for Mexico to support his policies on the highly politicized immigration and Border Wall issues given the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections in November.
In the interview AMLO made proposals for addressing immigration and border issues. Mexico had already been pressured during AMLO’s six-year administration, to bowing to Trump and Biden mandates on Title 42 and “Stay in Mexico” with Mexico functioning as some would term the “U.S’s policeman.” https://gripinequality.org/employee/perez-bustillo-camilo/
The April Tribuno article addressed AMLO’s proposal regarding sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba.
This article will address his other proposals:
1. Amnesty for 10 million undocumented residents already in the U.S.
2. Investment of 20 billion dollars in Central America in order to encourage political asylees and economic refugees to stay home.
On point one, AMLO certainly has a solid basis of support. Legalization for undocumented living in the U.S., up to a third of whom have been in the country for over 15 years, would benefit the U.S. economy. A 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found immigration “has an overall positive impact on the long run economic growth in the U.S.” This comparison was for legal immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants have an even more positive effect than their legal counterparts because they are on average younger and ineligible for public benefits. The same PBS report stated that according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic policy, the undocumented pay an estimated $11.6 billion a year in taxes.
On point two, there is a lot more to state than AMLO managed to say. This is highlighted in the title of the article from the Florida International University (FIU): “Money alone can’t fix Central America—or stop migration to U.S” written by former president of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solis.
Push factors such as violence, crime, chronic unemployment, lack of basic services in the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are complicated by climate change and longstanding gross public corruption. More than 2 million people have left the Triangle since 2019. An entrenched elite according to Solis dominate and sequester much of the aid intended for economic recovery. This builds on a legacy of U.S. meddling in Central America, in addition to in Haiti and other parts of Latin America for economic interests and to “stop communism.” (see Juan Gonzalez Harvest of Empire, as well as the FIU article).
Certainly the U.S. has to own up to its role in the current climate change and human migration crisis beginning with the Monroe Doctrine which has treated those South of the border as subservient and inferior peoples through to recent times ever since 1823.
As Solis mentions, the road will be difficult, and financing economic stability in the Northern Triangle will have to deal with corruption, and not just by increased militarization and other repressive measures. Glimmers of hope shine through with the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, International Commission against Impunity in El Salvador, and the International Commission against Impunity in Honduras (CICIG, CICIES, CICIH, initials in Spanish) through the Organization of American States (OAS). There have been setbacks and backsliding, reflecting in part who occupied the U.S. White House and Congress.
Any future progress in the Northern Triangle will be tied to what happens in the U.S. elections as Trump has already indicated by his actions during his first term as President what he will do with peoples from “sh…..e” countries.
In subsequent issues of the Tribuno del Pueblo please look for articles on other aspects of the migrant and immigration crisis such as “fentanyl and migrants”, gun violence in the U.S. and its relation to U.S. weapons smuggled into Mexico and the cartels, and public charge and health care.
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