Spotlight
Biden’s Deceptive Asylum Policy
Lisa Haugaard, El Faro, March 15, 2023
“The Biden administration proposed a rule on February 21 to penalize asylum seekers who cross the border without an approved appointment to request asylum. If they don’t have one, they must show they applied for and were denied asylum in another nation they passed through on their way to the United States.”
U.S. Enforcement
New America’s Voice Report on 2022 Midterms: “The GOP Investment in Nativism Failed to Deliver, Again”
America’s Voice, March 22, 2023
“A new report from America’s Voice analyzes the GOP’s messaging strategy of demonizing immigrants during the 2022 midterms failed to deliver at the ballot box in November. ‘The GOP Investment in Nativism Failed to Deliver, Again: America’s Voice Report on Nativist Political Messaging and Ads in the 2022 Midterms’ looks at how Republicans’ relentless emphasis on anti-immigrant attacks was a poor strategic decision that did not produce the promised key electoral victories.”
Weekly U.S.-Mexico Border Update: Reduced February migration, 2024 budget, Ciudad Juárez incident
Adam Isacson, Washington Office on Latin America, March 17, 2023
“U.S. data from February point to a sustained reduction in recorded levels of migration since January. This is likely a short-term result of the Biden administration’s expanded use of the Title 42 pandemic authority, which has put asylum out of reach for more nationalities of migrants. Migration from Cuba and Nicaragua plummeted 99+ percent from December to February.”
Mixed Blessing: Guatemalan Experiences under the New Central American Minors Program — Refugees International
Rachel Schmidtke and Yael Schacher, Refugees International, March 15, 2023
“The Central American Minors (CAM) program is designed to reunite children at risk in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala with their parents in the United States. Expanded eligibility under the Biden administration’s Phase 2 of the program has given more Guatemalan parents the ability to apply for CAM since September 2021. The absence of public reporting on CAM arrivals makes accountability difficult, but Refugees International’s research makes clear that few, if any, Guatemalan children have arrived in the United States as either refugees or parolees through Phase 2 of the CAM program.”
Few Guatemalan children are reunited with parents through U.S. program, report finds
Carmen Sesin, NBC News, March 15, 2023
“Few, if any, Guatemalan children have made it to the U.S. under an expanded program to reunite children with their parents in the U.S., according to a report published Wednesday by the nonprofit organization Refugees International.”
Politically motivated border policies, coverage of migrant caravans have done little to curb illegal immigration, Rice University study finds
Rebecca Noel, Houston Public Media, March 13, 2023
“Politically motivated moves along the U.S.-Mexico border, along with media coverage of migrant caravans, has contributed to ineffective immigration policy, according to a new study from the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. The study tracked coverage of 30 migrant caravans between 2017 and 2022 as well as the policies in place at the departure of each one.”
Mexico Enforcement
How US Policy Has Trapped Migrant Workers in an “Open-Air Prison” in Mexico
Esther Honig, The Nation, March 20, 2023
“The result is that the migrant crisis that was once at the southern US border has been outsourced, over 2,000 miles away, to Tapachula. Mexican immigration officials detained over 444,000 migrants in 2022—a 30 percent increase from the year before. A report from September 2022 suggests that around 60,000 migrants are stranded in Tapachula.”
Funcionario mexicano que dijo que va a separar a familias migrantes, se retracta días después
La Hora, 18 de marzo de 2023
“En México, el titular del Instituto de Migración Méxicano (INM), Francisco Garduño Yáñez, declaró recientemente que los menores de edad que viajan acompañados de sus familias serán separados de sus padres y puestos en tutela del estado. Por esto fue criticado y la medida se comparó con la política migratoria del expresidente Donald Trump”.
Mexico’s Asylum System: Good in Theory, Insufficient in Practice
Arturo Castellanos-Canales, National Immigration Forum, March 15, 2023
“February 23, 2023, the Biden administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking[1] that would severely restrict U.S. asylum eligibility for most migrants crossing the U.S.’s southwest border. Among its provisions, the proposed rule would create a presumption of asylum ineligibility — with limited exceptions — for migrants who travel through a third country unless they apply for and are denied asylum before reaching the United States.”
México, tercer país del mundo con más peticiones de refugio
Leonardo Frías Cienfuegos, Gaceta UNAM, 13 de marzo de 2023
“A partir de 2019 México ha experimentado un fenómeno social de gran magnitud: el incremento sostenido en la solicitud de reconocimiento a la condición de refugiado. En 2021 se alcanzó una marca histórica con 130,000 solicitantes de 110 países de origen, lo que lo convirtió en el tercer país a nivel mundial con más peticiones de este tipo, después de Estados Unidos y Alemania”.
Root Causes:
Mexico
México registró un promedio de 83 homicidios diarios en el último bimestre
InfoBae, 22 de marzo de 2023
“El número de homicidios dolosos en México repuntó un 4,23 % anual en el primer bimestre de 2023 hasta 4 mil 882 asesinatos, un promedio de 83 al día, según informó este miércoles la Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC). Estos datos se comparan con los 4 mil 684 homicidios de los primeros dos meses de 2022, según datos que exhibió la titular de la SSPC, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, en la conferencia matutina del Gobierno.”
México redujo presupuesto para castigar la corrupción, reconoció el Senado de la República
InfoBae, 22 de marzo de 2023
“La realidad es que en México la corrupción se castiga poco, tanto por la vía administrativa como por la vía penal, esto a pesar a pesar del auge de un enfoque punitivo y la aprobación de reformas en los últimos años, señaló una investigación del Instituto Belisario Domínguez (IBD), perteneciente al Senado de la República”.
La Jornada – Descalifica AMLO informe de EU sobre derechos humanos en México
Emir Olivares, La Jornada, 21 de marzo de 2023
“El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador descalificó el informe del Departamento de Estado sobre la situación de derechos humanos en México en el que señala que prevalece la impunidad, la corrupción y las agresiones a periodistas”.
Abusos e impunidad en México, según informe sobre Derechos Humanos en EU
Jim Cason y David Brooks, La Jornada, 20 de marzo de 2023
“Las elecciones mexicanas son generalmente libres e imparciales y las autoridades mantienen un ‘control efectivo’ sobre las fuerzas de seguridad, pero ‘abusos de derechos humanos significativos’ incluyendo asesinatos y desapariciones por fuerzas gubernamentales, tortura, violencia contra periodistas y ‘actos serios de corrupción gubernamental’ persisten en México, según el Informe Anual sobre Derechos Humanos en el mundo elaborado por el Departamento de Estado presentado este lunes”.
Guatemala
Living with water pollution in Guatemala
Marita Moloney, BBC News, March 23, 2023
“The first UN water summit in almost 50 years is taking place this week in New York City, where thousands of delegates will meet to discuss a looming global water crisis caused by overconsumption and overdevelopment. Reuters news agency sent a photographer to the Las Vacas river in the Chinautla municipality outside Guatemala City on Tuesday to record the impact that pollution is having on one waterway.”
Guatemala seeks to remove opposition candidate’s immunity
Associated Press, March 20, 2023
“A prosecutor in Guatemala asked a court Monday to lift the immunity of one of the candidates in June presidential elections, because the candidate had asked about a judge’s motive in prosecuting journalists.”
El Salvador
El Salvador’s basic food basket continues to rise
Ileana Ferrer Fonte, Prensa Latina, March 22, 2023
“In a rural area where some products were excluded, the basic food basket reached 197 dollars in February. Contrary to the wishes of Salvadoran families, the price of the basic food basket rose again in February and closed near 250 dollars in an urban area, according to ONEC data.”
War on gangs forges new El Salvador. But the price is steep.
Megan Janetsky and Fernanda Pesce, Associated Press, March 22, 2o23
“With semiautomatic weapons pressed to their chest, a pack of camouflage-clad police officers marches through rows of small brick homes winding up hills on the fringes of El Salvador’s capital. They rap sharply on door after door, pushing into homes with dozing teenagers listening to music or toddlers eating breakfast and watching cartoons.”
Countering El Salvador’s Democratic Backsliding
Tamara Taraciuk Broner and Noah Bullock, Americas Quarterly, March 21, 2023
“For decades, Salvadorans have faced egregious gang violence and successive governments unable or unwilling to ensure safety in people’s everyday lives. No wonder many support President Nayib Bukele when, during his administration, the rates of homicide and extortion have apparently decreased significantly. But neither Bukele, nor his followers at home, nor his growing fan club in the region are willing to seriously debate the price of his policies, whether they are sustainable, and the consequences of dismantling the country’s democratic institutions.”
El Salvador extends emergency powers in year-long gang crackdown
Al Jazeera, March 16, 2023
“Lawmakers in El Salvador have once again extended a state of emergency that suspends certain civil liberties as the government of President Nayib Bukele continues its fight against gangs. The so-called state of exception, renewed for a 12th time late on Wednesday by the Salvadoran Congress, came into effect last year and has led to around 66,000 arrests in the Central American nation.”
Honduras
Santa Fe, Colón, cumple diez años sin registrar homicidios – Diario La Tribuna
La Tribuna, 12 de marzo de 2023
“El municipio de Santa Fe, en el departamento de Colón, habitado principalmente por garífunas, cumplió diez años de no reportar un homicidio, destacó ayer su alcalde, Noé Ruíz”.
Ya hay 100,000 analfabetas inscritos en programa cubano
La Prensa, 12 de marzo de 2023
“Con la pretensión de reducir 5% el analfabetismo en Honduras, la Secretaría de Educación ya ha escrito a 100,000 hondureños que seran parte del programa cubano “Yo sí puedo”.
Nicaragua
He was freed from a Nicaraguan prison and now urges Biden admin to protect migrants like him
Armando Garcia, ABC News, March 16, 2023
“Last month, the door to Yubrank Suazo’s cell in a Nicaraguan prison flung open in the middle of the night as officers told him to put on his clothes and gather his personal items. Recalling that moment in a recent interview, Suazo said the officers did not tell him or the other 221 prisoners they gathered in similar fashion where they were going, even as they put them on busses with covered windows.”
Central America
La migración por el Darién también es ecuatoriana
Mónica Rivera Rueda, El Espectador, March 19, 2023
“Adriana*, de 24 años, empacó con cuidado la ropa de sus dos hijas (una de 10 meses y otra de seis años) en la maleta que ella cargaría. Antes de salir de la habitación del hotel en Necoclí, ella guardó su celular en un empaque para que no se mojara y se lo colgó en el cuello, empacó lo importante en un canguro que llevaba en la cintura, sobre la que posó a su hija menor, y revisó la temperatura de la mayor, que pasó toda la noche con fiebre. ‘Algo le sentó mal. También es que llevamos tres días viajando’”.
Regional
Chile seeks regional migration talks
Ileana Ferrer Fonte, Prensa Latina, March 15, 2023
“Regional presidents, including Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Alberto Fernández (Argentina) Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), and Luis Arce (Bolivia), among others, will meet in the first days of April in order to discuss migration issues and ways to face it globally.”
Gender and LGBTQ+
Bukele’s Party Will Not Allow Legal Abortion in El Salvador
TeleSur, March 22, 2023
Legislative Assembly President Ernesto Castro said that abortion should not be decriminalized as long as President Nayib Bukele’s “New Ideas” party has the majority. ‘Let it be completely clear: as long as New Ideas are in the majority in the Legislative Assembly, there is not the slightest possibility that abortion be legalized in El Salvador. We defend life above all else,’ he tweeted.”
La lucha por el aborto terapéutico en El Salvador: la historia de Beatriz
Reportar sin miedo, 21 de marzo de 2023
“A Beatriz nunca le respetaron su derecho a decidir. Pasaron 84 días para que le practicaran una cesárea. Justo cuando inició la labor de parto. El producto de su vientre carecía de cráneo y cerebro. Era anencéfalo. Esto imposibilitaba su vida fuera del útero. El embarazo, además, ponía en riesgo la vida y salud de Beatriz porque tenía una enfermedad mixta: artritis reumatoide y lupus eritematoso sistémico en su etapa de nefropatía lúpica. Todo embarazo en una gestante con lupus es de riesgo o alto riesgo, de acuerdo con la literatura médica”.
Violación a los derechos humanos en El Salvador ubica a las mujeres en “emergencia”
Xiomara Alfaro, El Salvador, 19 de marzo de 2023
“Tres expertas en temas de derechos humanos, economía, política y periodismo participaron en el primer foro “Impacto de las políticas Antidemocráticas de Nayib Bukele en la vida de las mujeres salvadoreñas”, celebrado a finales de la semana pasada en Washington D.C”.
Migrant girls risk trafficking, kidnapping, extortion
PLAN International, March 14, 2023
“Gender-based violence is driving adolescent girls from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico to embark on journeys along one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes, according to Plan International’s report “Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Experiences of Migration in Central America and Mexico.”
International Women’s Day: “Together we fight, resist, and advance”
CISPES, March 14, 2023
“On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, for International Working Women’s Day (or #8M) two prominent Salvadoran feminist coalitions, Asamblea Feminista and Resistencia Feminista, joined forces to lead a march and release a joint statement of demands to uplift their message of ‘Together we fight, resist, and advance’.”
ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN CRISIS
Violeta Castaño Ruiz, PLAN International, March 2023
“This report shows how girls experience the effects of crises and emergencies differently, and that external factors have an impact on their growth and development.”
Actions, Alerts, and Resources
Urgent Telephone Campaign Please Call the Guatemalan Embassy
Guatemala Human Rights Commission, March 21, 2023
“We are writing to ask for your emergency assistance to our friends and partners in Guatemala. As you know, they are fighting to bring Guatemalan military leaders to justice for the genocide and campaign of terror carried out during the Dirty War there. Some 250,000 people were abducted, “disappeared”, tortured and extrajudicially executed. The majority were indigenous citizens. 660 Mayan villages were massacred. The U.N. sponsored Truth Commission found some 93% of the atrocities were carried out by the Guatemalan security forces.”
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: El Salvador
U.S. Department of State, March 2023
“El Salvador is a constitutional multiparty republic with a democratically elected government. In 2019 voters elected Nayib Bukele as president for a five-year term. The election was generally free and fair, according to international observers. Municipal and legislative elections took place in February 2021 and also were considered largely free and fair by observers.”
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mexico
U.S. Department of State, March 2023
“Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the MORENA party won the presidential election in generally free and fair multiparty elections in 2018. In the June 2021 midterm elections, citizens voted for all members of the Chamber of Deputies, 15 governors, state legislators, and mayors across the country. The elections were generally free and fair.”
