U.S. Human Rights, Migrant Justice, Faith and Latin America Advocacy Organizations Denounce US Immigration raids;

Call for administrative relief and an end to US policies that result in forced displacement from Central America and Mexico

In the lead-up to Vice-President Biden’s meeting with the Presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador on January 14^th to discuss the controversial Alliance for Prosperity development plan, twenty U.S. and international organizations released a statement calling on the Obama administration to re-consider US policies that contribute to the displacement of tens of thousands from Central America, as well as for an immediate end to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting migrants and refugees from the region.

Laura Carlsen, Director of CIP Americas program, describes the raids as “part of an ongoing war against migrant families from the most violent and economically-deprived parts of Central America.”

In calling instead for humanitarian protection in the form of administratively-granted relief, Oscar Chacón, Executive Director of Alianza Americas, commented, “President Obama and Secretary Jeh Johnson must be woefully ignorant of the terrible circumstances that have pushed these children and families to embark on the perilous journey to the United States in search of refuge. Our current system is failing to protect families fleeing violence in the Central American Northern Triangle countries.”

The statement points to two major US policies that have contributed to the humanitarian crisis in the region: the militarized drug war and “a development model that lowers market and labor regulations to attract foreign direct investment that ends up benefiting the few, and erodes public-sector services.”

The groups conclude that the US’ “fight-fire-with-fire militarized response to drug trafficking has led to an explosion of armed violence that has reached unbearable levels in poor communities,” raising alarms over Congress’ recent decision to double military and security aid in the FY’16 Omnibus bill.

Economic policies such as sweeping privatizations and large-scale natural resource extraction projects, which the groups cite as generators of economic instability in the region, are at the core of the economic plank of the Alliance for Prosperity plan that Biden has been pushing since last November.

“The Biden plan appears to be largely focused on attracting fickle forms of direct foreign investment that typically only generate unstable jobs with poverty-level wages and can lead to major displacements of workers,” notes Alexander Main, analyst at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. 

Last April, in a letter delivered to the Presidents of the United States, Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala at the Summit of the Americas, over 75 environmental, women’s and human rights organizations from the U.S., Mexico and Central America expressed concerns about the Plan, citing infrastructure projects like a fracked gas pipeline from Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras as high-risk for further displacement.

“Unfortunately, none of our concerns have been addressed by the Obama administration,” said Kathryn Johnson of the American Friends Service Committee. “Instead of taking a hard look at the United States’ own policies, the President launched an aggressive attack on thousands of families who’ve been suffering under them.”

Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of 70 Democratic lawmakers, also called for an immediate end to the raids, describing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials’ disregard for the threats of extreme violence and poverty faced by many recent migrants as “inhumane.” Last year, the Caucus issued recommendations regarding unaccompanied minors that called for an immediate review of security assistance to Northern Triangle countries and Mexico, including CARSI and the Mérida Initiative as well and reforming U.S. trade policies that have contributed to forced migration.