More Central Americans on the way to US

From Molly Hennessy-Fiske at the Los Angeles Times.

The number of families illegally crossing the southern U.S. border has more than doubled over the same period last fall, prompting concern about a new surge of migrants from Central America.

Many more unaccompanied children are also crossing, with 4,476 apprehended in September — an 85% increase over that month in 2014, according to new Border Patrol data.

"If that trend even continues a little bit, if things start to go up in February as they usually do, we could be looking at things getting really high, and by spring, you're seeing an emergency," said Adam Isacson, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group.

It's not a surprise that the US and its Central American partners have been unable to make significant inroads into reducing the push (violence and lack of economic opportunities) and pull (family reunification and jobs) factors that have forced thousands of Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans from their homes and their countries in twelve months. The region confronts deep problems that require long-term solutions.

However, it is disappointing that the US has only been able to approve funds to beef up security along the US-Mexico and Mexico-Guatemala border and for programs that try to dissuade residents of the Northern Triangle from making the dangerous journey north. The US has done a poor job resolving the status of migrants who arrived last year and convincing its Congress to fund medium- and long-term programs to improve economic, social, and security programs in the region.