In last few years, a
huge number of migrants including family
and children have been arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Violence and
prosecution in Central American are the main reasons behind the large number of migration. People have been
trying to enter the U.S. to seek
protection and a better life. I could
attend an insightful discussion on this issue on February 21 in the American
University. The discussion was led by Maureen
Meyer. She is an AU-SIS Alumni and directs Washington Office on Latin
America's (WOLA) Mexico program with a special focus on analyzing U.S.-Mexico
security policies and their relation to organized crime-related violence,
corruption, and human rights violations in Mexico. She works to promote justice
for migrants who are victims of severe human rights violation in Mexico and
also organizes several advocacy works related to the administrative and security assistance to Mexico.
Maureen began the session explaining how difficult the current time is to deal with immigration laws especially with the present administration’s hostile attitude towards Mexico and Central America, policy changes in immigration laws and DACA laws. She stated that though the administration is raising concerns on an increased number of immigration, the reality is that the number of people trying to immigrant has lowered over the years. In fact, they are the lowest since 1972. Unlike the administration's claims, there is no “flood” at the border.
Why do people want
to migrate? Firstly, places like Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador has a heavy gang-presence. Crimes
like murder, rape, abduction, robbery, and
others are extremely high. Police and government do not do enough to protect
the citizen. So families want to cross the borders, come to the U.S. for a secured future. Most of the
immigrants, after crossing the border, try to talk to the border patrol and
seek asylum. But the current U.S. administration does not take the asylum cases in consideration. The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) tend to identify them as illegal immigrants rather than asylum
seekers. Even in their last press-release,
they did not mention anything about asylum seekers. The emphasis was on
repatriation of illegal immigrants. (Here’s the press release for reference
from DHS official website)
But there was a time
when the Obama administration identified economic migration and asylum seekers.
Now DHS wants to detain immigrants. There is no right screening at border patrol. They argue that through families,
Central American gangs are sending their people inside the U.S. although there is no such evidence. Also,
every asylum seeker has the right to talk to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) but they
are not given that chance.
Maureen explained
that they are constantly communicating with migrant shelters, the Mexican government and immigration agencies in Mexico
to increase protection for migrants. They are talking closely with the
migrants, helping them with documentation and other administrative and legal
procedures. The aim is to act as a bridge between Mexico and U.S. government.
Enhancing the screening process is also a key part of this process. Efforts are
taken to push the government to understand the magnitude of the issue and act holistically.
It is important to educate the congressmen. If pressure comes from the
Congressmen, change can happen. Also,
efforts are taken to bring more media attention to this issue.
The three core
objectives of WOLA are:
Ø Focus
efforts to mitigate the risk of immigrants
Ø To
limit policy proposals putting migrants at risk
Ø Protecting
migrants from Central America traveling through Mexico.
Keeping the
interests of the immigrants at the core, WOLA works at local, state and
national levels and acts as a bridge
between all these entities. They connect the government bodies to the
immigrants and their issues, judicial system and human rights advocates. WOLA
also have several supporting organizations. They also partner with thousands of
common people around the country who help them in identifying human rights
problem. I found a resemblance between the
functioning of WOLA and McGlen and O’Connor’s explanation of four key
ingredients for the rise of the women’s movement (Woliver, 1993, p. 5):
Ø Sense of collective oppression
(thousands of Central American migrants being deprived asylum or even the basic right to talk to a migration lawyer in
the first place)
Ø An extant organizational base
(WOLA has been working relentlessly for the causes of the Central American
migrants)
Ø A communication network (WOLA
has a widespread communication network
spreading between U.S.-Mexico-Central America. They work with national and
local governments, non-profit organizations, immigration offices, immigrants,
law and judicial departments. The network ecosystem is large and involves
multiple communication stakeholders)
Ø A critical mobilization event (the
DACA bill, ongoing deportation from all parts of the country, President Trump’s
hostile disposition towards migrants and his idea of building the wall – all
these incidents have triggered major issues for immigrants)
We also discussed collective
action and connective action in class. The functioning of WOLA is an example of
traditional collective action. The organization coordinates all the key
functions. They are active on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
but they are mainly used to disseminate key information rather than
mobilization.
A lot
of great information can be found on the
below websites. They are also great organizations to get involved as
volunteers.
