American Magazine November 2014

expert
3 MINUTES ON . . . Immigration of Minors
Daniel Esser
Professor
School of International Service
Illegal immigration has
Corruption facilitates
in the United States. They
However, because of fungibility
IMMIGRANT CHILD PHOTO: JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES NEWS/GETTY IMAGES GRAFFIT PHOTO: ©TREVOR SNAPP/CORBIS
actually gone down recently.
The current crisis is about
who is coming over,
both in terms of age and their
countries of origin. It’s important
that we don’t just focus
on the numbers but on
the particular challenge
at hand: the violence and
lack of perspective that
Central American
minors are facing.
Violence, particularly in
Guatemala and Honduras, has
increased during the last
year. The situation in
El Salvador is different
because of the truce
between the Mara Salvatrucha
and Mara 18 street gangs, but the
country is still much more
violent than most. Gangs
control entire neighborhoods
and districts
by using
extortion,
kidnapping,
forced gang recruitment, and
aggravated sexual abuse.
criminal organization while
alienating citizens from
the state. Most parents’
greatest wish is for their
children to escape this
vicious cycle—that is
what’s been driving immigration
into the United States.
The other factor, which is
more difficult to document, is
rumors. Human traffickers
have a big stake in this dynamic.
Word on the street is that if you
make it across the U.S. border as
a minor, you’ll be able to stay. Of
course the equation of physical
presence with a right
to stay is false; in
fact, the situation for
minors in U.S. detention centers
is grave. These centers aren’t
meant to provide legal counseling,
but to “process” and
deport them.
In essence it’s a
humanitarian
crisis, not a security crisis.
The cartels are already established
travel freely and do not
need to pay thousands of
dollars to be trafficked
across the southern deserts. The
situation has been framed
as a security issue
in the United States, partially
because that’s where the money
is and partially because there’s a
large constituency that responds
well to xenophobic framing.
It’s how you
politicize
the issue
in the hope of deriving an
advantage out of it.
Responsibility for the situation
needs to be shared. Central
American governments ought to
step up information
campaigns about current
U.S. immigration laws.
The U.S. government
should support this
measure, financially and
technically. The same is true
for ad hoc programs in the
communities where the largest
numbers of immigrants originate.
and corruption, it is critical
that funds flow to local
organizations and
think tanks
instead of central
government coffers.
More long term, we’re talking
about comprehensive
immigration
reform in the United States
and the creation of a regional
economic architecture that
provides more equitable
opportunities for
people. NAFTA has been a
resounding
failure for most
Mexicans in this regard
and must not be repeated. The
disconnect between economic
elites and the rest of the citizenry
in Central America suggests
that any architecture that
focuses on increasing
capital mobility
without strengthening local
economic development will
only exacerbate the situation.
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