Memo From Middle America | In Midst Of Amnesty Debate, Obama Off To Mexico And Central America—What Might He Agree To There?
05/02/2013
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In the midst of the ongoing debate over the Gang of Eight’s Amnesty/ Immigration Surge bill, President Obama is leaving to visit Mexico and Central America, from May 2nd to May 4th. What might he agree to there?

The trip is clearly being managed with domestic political considerations in mind. According to Obama spokesman Jay Carney,

This trip is an important opportunity to reinforce the deep cultural, familial and economic ties that so many Americans share with Mexico and Central America.

Indeed, Hispanic activists have already prepped Obama for his trip to Latin America:

On Monday [April 29th], Obama met in the White House with a group of U.S. Latino advocates to discuss the pending trip. He told them that “immigration reform continues to be a top legislative priority this year,“ and that “he is looking forward to talking with Latin American leaders about our vision for the Americas as a region of shared opportunity,” said a White House statement. The invited Latino activists included the heads of La Raza, Fundación Azteca America, MALDEF and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials

[Obama will tout immigration on Latin America visit, By Neil Munro, The Daily Caller, April 30, 2013]

Hmm, do you suppose that these “Latino activists” encouraged Obama to promote American interests on his trip south of the border? After all, they are Americans, right?

Obama is only scheduled to visit two countries, Mexico and Costa Rica, but he is slated to attend a summit, also attended by the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Note that several of these countries—Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, are large sources of immigration to the United States, and they have lower per capita income than Mexico.

As I pointed out recently, Mexico’s interior minister visited Washington in April and signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Janet Napolitano. I theorized that in the future, Obama might utilize a similar agreement with Mexico to facilitate amnesty or Open Borders, regardless of what the American people or even the U.S. Congress might think about it.

Obama might also sign similar agreements with Central American nations. After all, there are millions of Central American immigrants already in the United States. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras already depend more on remittances from immigrants in the U.S. than Mexico does. For Honduras, remittances constitute a whopping one-quarter of its entire economy.[INTERNATIONAL REMITTANCES IN HONDURAS, Centre For Latin American Monetary Studies, 2008]

These countries have recently begun to follow Mexico’s example of meddling in U.S. immigration policy—so far with little opposition from the U.S. Congress.

And these countries do have the consulates on U.S. soil—Guatemala has ten, Honduras has eleven, and El Salvador has sixteen (!) consulates. That’s a total of 37 consulates for the three countries, plus an embassy for each. (Click here for my previous article on Central Americans and immigration).

And yes, the Central Americans keep coming to the United States. They cross Mexico to get there, and often have quite a rough time of it. Central American illegal aliens are regularly robbed, raped, kidnapped, beaten and sometimes murdered, or they simply disappear and are never heard from again. It’s a major human rights disaster taking place in the same country which constantly lectures us about our treatment of Mexican illegal aliens.

I’ve been writing about this phenomenon on VDARE.com for years. Here are my articles on the subject, in reverse chronological order;

In 2011, Mexico reformed its immigration law. Then-president Calderon boasted

Today, Mexico is doing its part to improve the immigration system in North America. This, without doubt, is advanced legislation, bold legislation, immigration legislation with few precedents in the world.[New Immigration Law Takes Effect in Mexico [Jacob Sapochnick, Immigration Lawyer Blog, May 25, 2011]

It was claimed that the new law would save poor Central American migrants crossing Mexico—and show the gringos how they should run their own immigration policy.

Despite all the boasting, I discovered there was more to the new law and policy than met the eye. I summarized my findings in Will Mexico's Latest Immigration Law Work—And Why Can't The U.S. Have It? The new Mexican immigration reform still affirmed Mexico’s right  to

  • control its own border and immigration policy;
  • permit or deny entry to applicants;
  • detain and deport those who do not comply.

And Mexican authorities continue to detain Central American illegal aliens on Mexican soil. Here are some recent such incidents openly reported by the INM (Instituto Nacional de Migración), Mexico’s immigration bureaucracy:

  • On April 8th and 9th, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the INM detained 120 Central American illegal aliens (108 Guatemalans, 6 Salvadorans and 6 Hondurans). They were discovered in highway checkpoints conducted in cooperation with the Mexican military and the Mexican federal police. (Source: INM Bulletin 1713)
  • On April 13th, the INM reported the detention of 10 illegal aliens in the central state of Puebla. Of the ten, 4 were Salvadorans, three were Honduran, one Guatemalan, but two were from India. These two had flown to Mexico from India, then traveled to Guatemala, later returning to Mexico where they received false identity documents, continuing en route to the United States until being discovered by the INM. (Source: INM Bulletin 1813)
  • On April 18th, the INM reported the detention in the state of Queretaro of 30 illegal aliens (13 Salvadorans, 12 Hondurans and 5 Nicaraguans. The INM detained them in a joint operation with local police. (Source: INM Bulletin 2013).
  • On April 27th, the INM reported the detentions of 108 illegal aliens in the states of Oaxaca and Tabasco (INM bulletin 2413). This report actually wound up being picked up by Reuters (Mexico detains 108 in immigration sweep; most from Central America, April 29, 2013). Of the total detained, 95 were Central Americans, 8 were from India and 5 from Bangladesh. Most were caught on the highway but a few were picked up in a bus terminal. The Reuters piece reported that “An increasing number of Central Americans are sneaking across Mexico's largely unpoliced southern border en route to the United States….The number of undocumented Central Americans deported from the United States has risen in recent years.”
  • On April 3rd, the INM reported the detention and repatriation to their home country of 82 illegal alien Hondurans—17 adults and 66 minors (!) from ages 4 to 17. (Source: INM Bulletin 1513)
  • On April 2nd, the INM reported the detention in Chiapas of two Mara Salvatrucha gang members, one from Honduras and the other rom El Salvador, who extorted from and kidnapped migrants. (Source: INM Bulletin 1413).

Note that these reports are only from the month of April. It’s just a taste of the havoc wreaked by our porous border. Just imagine how Amnesty would make this situation even worse.

Despite the detentions, plenty of Central American aliens are able to arrive to the U.S. Bear in mind that most of the illegal aliens who enter Mexico are intending to pass through to the United States. According to Mexican immigration authorities, about 400,000 illegal aliens enter Mexico through its southern border annually. Of this 400,000 total, 80,000 are sent back to their countries, while 70,000 manage to cross the northern border into the U.S. The other 250,000 wind up staying in Mexico, which the Mexican government doesn’t like.

Just imagine how it would be after Amnesty.

Or what if the Mexican government just decides to completely abandon illegal alien detentions and just direct them all to the United States?

When he visits south of the border, Obama could sign a memorandum of cooperation with Latin American leaders to bring about an amnesty. Or if he doesn’t want to do that publicly, he might privately promise these leaders a continuation and expansion of the non-enforcement already occurring. A de facto amnesty, in other words.

Whatever Obama says and does on his visit, this trip is certainly something to keep an eye on.

After all, why wouldn’t Obama use personal presidential diplomacy in Latin America to accelerate the election of a new people back home?

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) recently moved back to the U.S.A. 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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