Last week our Zoom meeting presentation by Kimberly Brown Medina was entitled Central American Migration: “Crisis”, Caravan and Causes. Kim is a practicing attorney in Ft Collins and has limited her practice to immigration law since 2003. The recent history of US immigration law is sadly limited - the last reform was in 1996.
Over the last 10 years southern border crossings have shown a proportional increase in Northern Triangle residents (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) compared to Mexicans. Some of the causes of this increase include poverty, failing democracies, crime, violence, corruption, and the destruction of the environment. Some of the drivers have been US intervention, corrupt governments, and multi-national corporations.
Violence is most often directed towards women and girls, with Central America among the most dangerous places in the world for these groups. These 3 countries are also among the poorest in the world. Civil wars in both Guatemala and El Salvador during the period 1980-1996 resulted in a total of 275,000 deaths, especially among the indigenous populations. Honduras is run by 10 families and has also suffered as a result of US interventions, stolen elections, land struggles and human rights violations. Scores of activists, journalists and attorneys have been killed in Honduras and those responsible generally have impunity.
Legal immigration to the US is often limited to the wealthy or the highly educated. Those who qualify as refugees and asylees are severely limited by the “system”. The “line” is long for all that apply. Bars to obtaining status include criminal convictions, unlawful presence, misrepresentation, and poverty.
Asylum requires legal proof of persecution or fear of future persecution and requires strict legal basis and “proof”. Asylum does not include some of the most pressing issues such as general danger in country or poverty.
Immigrants have Constitutional Rights in the US under the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments; they also have Human Rights. The details of what basic rights should be available to all people and what the US policy should be towards Central America was detailed in the final slides.
This was an excellent review of a subject that persists in the national attention and is likely to become more loudly discussed as the “political” season approaches.