Memo From Middle America| Is Mexico Really Helping Curb Flow Of Central American Illegals?
09/18/2014
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The photograph above isn't of Mexicans invading across the Rio Grande, but Guatamelans invading Mexico across Mexico's unguarded Southern Border.

This summer’s Central American kid invasion turned into an utter disaster for the Treason Lobby’s Amnesty/ Immigration Surge schemes. So naturally the Main Stream Media is now downplaying the influx and even suggesting that Mexico may be helping curb it—something I’ve urged that the U.S. demand, and in fact compel by dumping the Central American illegals back into Mexico. But needless to say, Obama is not dumping Central American illegals back into Mexico—and I’m skeptical that much else is happening either.

It may be a surprise to some Americans that Mexico has a porous border with Guatemala. In fact, in 2010, a report circulated in the blogosphere that the Mexican state of Chiapas was constructing a wall on its border with Guatemala. This was derided as an example of Mexican hypocrisy—they build a wall but don’t want us to.

But you have to be careful about the internet, including some of the material circulated on the immigration patriot side. (Which is why you should give to VDARE.COM!—our articles are professionally edited and carefully hyperlinked to primary sources).

There are plenty of examples of Mexican hypocrisy. But this isn’t one of them. Mexico’s border with Guatemala is not fenced off.

Part of the good news the MSM has been spreading this fall: Mexico is considering beefing up its southern border security!…and wants YOU to pay for it!

Mexico does reserve the right to detain illegal aliens at checkpoints after they get into Mexico. And it does summarily deport illegal child migrants. But there is not a systematic enforcement policy being executed efficiently, as we can see from the continuing flow of Central Americans through Mexico into our own country.

Recently, the Mexican government has been promoting the “Programa Frontera Sur,” the Southern Border Program, instituted on July 7th. According to the Mexican presidential website, the goals of the program are

…to protect and safeguard the human rights of the migrants who enter and pass through Mexico, and to set in order the international crossings to increase the development and security of the region.

[Pone en marcha el Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto el Programa Frontera Sur, July 7, 2014]

Vague, but politicians in general (and Mexican politicians in particular) love such grandiose pronouncements.

The program has five lines of action:

  1. Formal and ordered crossing of the border.
  2. An orderly border and greater security for “los migrantes”.
  3. “Protection and social action in favor of the migrants” includes medical attention.
  4. Regional co-responsibility
  5. Inter-institutional coordination
Interesting promises, but what is happening on the ground?

One report is that the Mexican government is finally taking on “La Bestia”—the freight trains that illegal aliens try to hitch rides on to pass through Mexico. I reported in VDARE.com on this dangerous practice back in 2010.

On August 26th, Mexico’s paper of record El Universal reported that  Mexican official Humberto Mayans (Co-ordinator for Integrated Care For Migration on the Frontera Sur) had called for preventing illegal aliens from boarding “La Bestia” trains. At the same time,Co-ordinator Mayans promised lodging, food and medical attention for detained illegal aliens while they await “retorno asistido”. [Buscan evitar el abordaje a La Bestia, El Universal, August 26, 2014] The Spanish term means literally, “assisted return”—comparable to what we’d call in the U.S. “voluntary deportation”.

But even this was too much for some Mexican “migrant defender organizations” who don’t want the Mexican government to stop illegals from boarding trains. One activist claimed that the Frontera Sur program would sanction “migrant hunting”. [Critican plan Frontera Sur; ven riesgos para migrantes, by Juan Manuel Diego, El Universal, August 26, 2014]

Still, reports from the U.S. media indicate that Mexico is taking action:

Under U.S. pressure, Mexico for the first time in many years has launched a wide crackdown on the migrants…Immigration agents backed by federal police and the military are plucking the travelers from trains and buses in southern Mexico, raiding cheap hotels and flophouse, capturing as many as they can. The result is that the number of migrants heading north has dropped significantly….The freight trains known as La Bestia, which just six weeks ago were covered with migrants clinging to them, now often travel with virtually none.

[Mexico crackdown keeps migrants off trains known as ‘La Bestia,’by Tracy Wilkinson, LA Times, September 7, 2014. Also Mexico’s crackdown cuts flow of migrants, by Mark Stevenson, Associated Press, August 29, 2014].

Unfortunately, there are reasons to be cautious. For one, illegal migration rates fluctuate based upon several non-enforcement variables, including the weather and the economy.

But a second, more important reason: the figures we are given are already undercounted. Neil Munro reports at the Daily Caller,

The unprecedented multi-year inflow of 150,000 poor Central American migrants into the United States has dropped by only one-quarter during the hottest and most dangerous month of this year… The Obama administration has distorted the figures, claiming a bigger drop in border apprehensions from June to August by counting the “unaccompanied minors” but conveniently not counting illegal alien family units apprehended.

[Obama hides Steady Inflow of Central American Migrants, September 3, 2014]

The bottom line: We don’t know yet whether Mexico is actually cracking down on illegal migration from Central America. The decrease is understated and anyway may be entirely due to the weather rather than a grandiose public relations program with a fancy title.

And there’s also this devastating fact to consider: Mexico is certainly not doing anything about the illegal emigration of its own people into the United States.

The Obama Regime is already lying about the figures. I think it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that it has cut a deal with the Mexican government for a showy short-term farce of “enforcement” to be followed by mass Amnesty.

But anyway, the fact is that Americans should not rely on Mexico to secure their border or reduce the flow of illegals from Central America. Ultimately, this isn’t a supply problem—it’s a demand problem. We need to take away the incentives for illegal immigration, secure our own border, and reclaim the responsibility for defending our own territory.

In the end, it’s not the Mexican government that’s sabotaging American sovereignty—it’s our own.

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) moved back to the U.S.A. in 2008 after many years residing in Mexico. Allan's wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual.  In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here ; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.

 

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