As that mass caravan of as many as 6,000 migrants from Honduras makes its way through Mexico toward the U.S., the Congressman who represents the area where the migrants may try to come into the country says there is much the U.S. could do to discourage this sort of mass migration, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) says it would be in the best interests of U.S. taxpayers to invest in Honduras and other Central American nations, so the people in those places don't need to come to the U.S.
"$800 million are still pending that we can use for security, for economic development," Cuellar said. "I have asked the state department to move those resources down there as soon as possible."
Decades of changing migration patterns have shown that ending migration at the source is far easier and far more efficient than trying to deal with it as a law enforcement problem in the receiving country.
For example, in the 90s and 2000s, the vast number of people sneaking into the U.S. were from Mexico, which was dealing with demographic problems, like the massive baby boom in the sixties and seventies, as well as a lack of opportunities in Mexico.
Several factors, including the opening of Mexico's oil resources to global oil companies have created more opportunities for Mexicans to stay in Mexico.
Similarly, the vast majority of today's Western Hemisphere illegal immigration is from three countries in Central America, the so called Northern Triangle nations of Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. All of those nations are dealing with endemic corruption, out of control crime, and a lack of opportunities for their people.
Right next door, for example, are Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize, which are sending almost no refugees to the U.S., because opportunities exist for those people at home.
Cuellar says this shifting immigration paradigm is placing the U.S. and Mexico on the same side. As we saw with the 'March of the Migrants' over the weeks, illegal immigration and trespassing their their country has turned Mexico into a 'border security' state just like the U.S.
"If you look at the statistics, when we were working with Mexico, they were stopping over 200,000 people a year," Cuellar said.
n fact, it has even been suggested that the U.S. and Mexico should work together to build a 'border wall' on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, to deter mass migration like we are seeing now.
Cuellar says when President Trump started criticizing and threatening Mexico, it began to create the situation we are seeing today.
IMAGE: GETTY