US Deportation and Narcotrafficking Policies Collide in Honduras
US Deportation and Narcotrafficking Policies Collide in Honduras
Just like the police officers who are being fired as part of the Lobo government's effort to purge the National Police of corrupt officers, the deportees are going to prove excellent recruits for the crime syndicates, cartels, and gangs.
Editorial
By Marco Cáceres
hondurasweekly.com
Monday, 28 May 2012 07:15
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The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is deporting more than 2,200 undocumented Hondurans per month. It sends them back to Honduras aboard chartered flights. Just this past Friday, two aircraft arrived -- one in Tegucigalpa and the other in San Pedro Sula -- carrying a total of 200 deportees. Last year, over 22,500 Honduran nationals were deported from the US. At the current pace, the number of deportations will surpass 26,000 this year. But that's not the worst news for Honduras. The worst news is that the Obama administration has adopted a new policy of deporting mainly undocumented immigrants with a criminal record. This means that all or the vast majority of the Hondurans being returned to Honduras have committed a crime in the US.
In an effort to boost the deportation of illegal aliens with criminal records, ICE is in the process of increasing its agents by 25 percent. It is putting more officers in the field to search for and deport undocumented people. Officers who had formerly been assigned desk jobs are now being re-assigned to "fugitive search teams" around the country. According to ICE director, John Morton, "We changed agency policy to focus fugitive operations more on criminal offenders. This is part of a permanent restructuring of agency resources to meet the highest priority of removing serious offenders."
On the surface, the new US deportation policy is reasonable. With limited immigration enforcement resources, why not focus on deporting illegals who have committed criminal acts? You get rid of the undocumented immigrants who may be the most dangerous. Leave those who are quietly working in peace to send money to their families back in their native country alone and only target those who get out of line.
While this policy change may make total sense from a purely immigration enforcement standpoint, particularly during an election when Republicans are insisting on tougher measures against undocumented immigrants, the move is a killer (both metaphorically and literally) for Honduras. The Lobo government is overwhelmed with the crime situation in the country. As it is, it doesn't have nearly enough financial or human resources to combat organized crime, drug cartels, and violent gangs.
A weekly influx into Honduras of 500-plus people with criminal records simply exacerbates matters. After all, what are these deportees expected to do to make a living? There are very employment opportunities in Honduras and almost no jobs that pay a decent, steady wage. Oddly enough, this was the reason why the deportees migrated to the US in the first place. In the meantime, the Honduran economy has only gotten worse.
Just like the police officers who are being fired as part of the Lobo government's effort to purge the National Police of corrupt officers, the deportees are going to prove excellent recruits for the crime syndicates, cartels, and gangs. There is plenty of money to be made in the drug trafficking industry, the human trafficking industry, the sex trafficking industry, the extortion industry -- infinitely more money than Hondurans can make sweeping streets or pulling shifts at Power Chicken.
When there is so much miserable poverty in Honduras and very little hope that the government will make things better or that the wealthy will come to their senses and share their wealth and become more involved in addressing the social inequities of the society, turning to crime doesn't seem (to many) to be such an insane option.
The irony of it all is that while the Pentagon and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are spending increasing amounts of US taxpayer dollars and putting the lives of innocent Hondurans in jeopardy to fight the so-called "drug war" in Honduras and all the crime that emanates from drug trafficking, their sister agency, the ICE, is delivering more and more recruits for the enemy.
It's a kind of lunacy. You really have to wonder whether the Obama administration has any clue at all of the extent to which its immigration enforcement and anti-drug trafficking strategies are colliding with each other.
As Colin Powell said Wednesday on the TV program Morning Joe in response to Mitt Romney's sophomoric comment that Russia is the US' top geostrategic threat: "C’mon, Mitt, think"... I would say the same to President Obama on his government's deportation and narcotrafficking policies: "C'mon, Barry, think". Your get-tough on illegal criminals approach may be good election-year politics, but it's a downright killer for Honduras. (5/28/12) (photo courtesy Internet
Note: The author is the editor and cofounder of Honduras Weekly. He is an aerospace market analyst by profession. He was born in Tegucigalpa.
US Deportation and Narcotrafficking Policies Collide in Honduras
