How the U.S. can help caravan migrants stay home
"Whatever the scope of the president's authority," the judge wrote, "he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," Tigar wrote in his order.
Team Trump vows to fight for the temporarily blocked rule in court. But even if they eventually win, it will take more than border protection and immigration enforcement to end the crisis that has led to a backlog of hundreds of thousands of asylum requests.
For that we must turn to the root causes of the crisis in the countries where the caravans originate, mainly the Northern Triangle countries of Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Back in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan's administration opposed leftists fighting for power in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Reagan warned that without U.S. intervention, events in Central America could move "chaos and anarchy toward the American border," including "hundreds of thousands of refugees" seeking "entry into our country."
That day appears to have arrived. After an unexpected surge of 68,000 unaccompanied migrant children from Central America made headlines in 2014, the Obama administration worked with Congress and leaders in the Northern Triangle and in 2016 provided $750 million to support anti-corruption measures and development funds in the region.
Although Team Obama reported measurable progress, including a drop in Honduras' murder rate by a third, Team Trump cut aid to the Northern Triangle by almost 20 percent to $615 million this year -- and the president wants to cut even more.
But further reductions in aid programs without regard to their effectiveness would invite more disasters in countries already suffering from the biggest drivers of migration: crime, violence, poverty, corruption and a lack of economic opportunity.
When he was a candidate, Trump's Latin American policy boiled down to "Build a wall." Those three words still make a catchy applause line in the president's rally speeches. But a wall to keep migrants out of this country would be a poor substitute for policies that would help them to stay in their own.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
