The Refugees at Our Door
In the New York Times, author of the award winning book Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario, writes about how the United States is paying Mexico to keep Central Americans fleeing violence from reaching our border:
“In the past 15 months, at the request of President Obama, Mexico has carried out a ferocious crackdown on refugees fleeing violence in Central America. The United States has given Mexico tens of millions of dollars for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to stop these migrants from reaching the United States border to claim asylum.
Essentially the United States has outsourced a refugee problem to Mexico that is similar to the refugee crisis now roiling Europe. . . .
I went to Mexico last month to see the effects of the crackdown against migrants, who are being hunted down on a scale never seen before and sent back to countries where gangs and drug traffickers have taken control of whole sections of territory.”
Photo by Kate Orlinsky courtesy of the New York Times
KJ