Influx of child migrants is shaping up to be Biden administration’s first crisis
Agrowing influx of child migrants from Central America is rapidly becoming the Biden administration’s first major crisis, and its outcome is likely to become a factor in the outcome of the 2022 U.S. congressional elections.
Former President Trump, perhaps to divert attention from Biden’s successful campaign to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, made it clear in his Feb. 28 speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference that he will focus on immigration to propel his political resurrection effort.
Trump falsely claimed that since Biden took office there has been a “massive flood of illegal immigration into our country, the likes of which we have never seen before.” That was, of course, a typical Trump falsehood to fire up his anti-immigration base.
In fact, border apprehensions have been rising since April 2020, when Trump was in office. And they are significantly below their 2019 levels, and their all-time records in the early 2000s, according to the non-partisan Pew Research Center.
There is one category, however, where there is a larger-than-usual uptick: child migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the so-called Central American Northern Triangle countries. Among the reasons for the current increase in child migrants:
First, Northern Triangle countries have some of the world’s highest homicide rates. Many teenagers in these countries face a “join-or-die” ultimatum from gangs, so their parents often hire smugglers to get them to the United States.
Second, several years of droughts, and the 2020 Eta and Iota hurricanes have destroyed corn and bean harvests, leaving entire communities without enough food.
Third, the COVID-19 pandemic further ruined the region’s economy by bringing tourism to a halt.
Fourth, rampant corruption in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — from the top down — makes people skeptical of any change for the better and prompts many to want to emigrate.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a close Trump ally, has been implicated by a U.S. federal court in drug trafficking. El Salvador’s elected autocratic president, Nayib Bukele, has marched with uniformed soldiers into Congress to intimidate legislators into approving a bill.
In Guatemala, violent gangs and drug cartels act with impunity, while courts release people who have been indicted in wellknown corruption cases. Not surprisingly, experts say there is a crisis of “cumulative despair” in the region.
As many as 38 percent of Hondurans, 26 percent of Salvadorans and 25 percent of Guatemalans say the intend to emigrate, according to a poll by Vanderbilt University’s LAPOP survey.
“It’s stunning,” says Benjamin Gedan, a Latin America expert with the Wilson Center. “The number of people who want to migrate shows the magnitude of the problem.”
The Trump administration’s way to deal with this problem was to call some of these nations “shithole countries,” build wall on Mexico’s border, ask the Mexico to stop Central American migrants on its southern border, and try to cut foreign aid to the region.
In the process, Trump totally abandoned serious efforts to fight rampant corruption and violence in the Northern Triangle. Trump not only failed to criticize the region’s corrupt presidents who lavished him with praise, but looked the other way as they dismantled highly effective international anti-corruption groups, such as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, run by the United Nations.
Biden, on the other hand, rightly believes that the only way to stop the long-term exodus from Northern Triangle countries will be to attack the root causes of migration. He is proposing a $4 billion economic aid package for the region, linked to strong anti-corruption measures.
Granted, giving economic aid to corrupt governments is a dangerous proposition. Biden’s aid package should come with strong strings attached. In exchange for U.S. aid, the Northern Triangle’s questionable leaders should accept direct U.S. supervision of how the funds are spent, plus the arrival of new international anticorruption bodies similar to the ones they recently expelled.
“It’s difficult to imagine a serious effort to rebuild these countries without international help to fight corruption,” Gedan told me.
I agree. I would add that without fighting corruption, there will be no improvement in living conditions, nor a decrease in migration. It’s time to help Northern Triangle countries, with the condition that their corrupt leaders allow an internationally supervised reset of their broken law-enforcement and justice systems.
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Marlins manager Don Mattingly has held out Sixto Sanchez so far this spring. The team’s top pitching prospect may not see action for at least another week.
The Miami Marlins’ first four spring training games have come and gone, and their top prospect has yet to take the field.
Right-handed pitcher Sixto Sanchez, a consensus top-25 prospect in Major League Baseball, likely won’t see action in live Grapefruit League games for at least another week as the Marlins ease him into his routine.
Sanchez, ranked as high as No. 6 by Baseball America and also viewed as a top-15 prospect by both ESPN (No. 11) and MLB Pipeline (No. 15), was delayed getting to spring training because of visa issues in the Dominican Republic. He didn’t join camp until Feb. 22 — five days after pitchers and catchers began workouts.
As a result, Sanchez was not part of the Marlins’ first pod of spring training games. Daniel Castano and Nick Neidert each threw two innings on Sunday. Sandy
Alcantara was the starter Monday, Pablo Lopez on Tuesday and Eleiser Hernandez on Wednesday.
Following the team’s off day Thursday, Trevor Rogers and Neidert will throw Friday, Alcantara and Castano will take the mound Saturday, and Lopez makes his second start Sunday.
Sanchez, meanwhile, threw a pair of bullpen sessions during the past week, most recently Tuesday. Marlins manager Don Mattingly said he will need to throw at least one — potentially two — live batting practice sessions before he takes the mound in a live spring training game.
“We’re really happy with where Sixto is at right now,” Mattingly said. “Obviously he had a little delay getting in, but he had been throwing. We had video of all his sides during the winter and conversations with [pitching coach] Mel [Stottlemyre Jr.] and Sixto. So we’re happy with where Sixto’s at, where his arm’s at and what he looks like in his pens.”
Sanchez made his long-awaited majorleague debut with the Marlins during the shortened 2020 season. He made nine starts, including two in the playoffs, and posted a 3.64 ERA with 41 strikeouts against 16 walks through 47 innings.
Right now, Sanchez is projected as one of four pitchers expected to be in the Marlins’ rotation to begin the season along with Alcantara, Lopez and Hernandez. One from the group of Rogers, Neidert, Braxton Garrett and Castano will likely get the fifth spot. The Marlins also signed veteran lefty and Hialeah native Gio Gonzalez to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training.
Sanchez’s high-octane fastball which eclipses 100 mph paired with a plus changeup and an above average slider and curveball give him all the tools to be a potential ace.
But consistency will be Sanchez’s primary need for improvement as he continues his majorleague career. He struggled against teams the second and third time around and let mistakes from previous games linger into his next start.
“The first time you face a team, you start giving your best to them,” Sanchez said earlier in spring training. “The second time, you have to start making some changes. The same with the third time.
What I normally do is just start working on those adjustments. That way you can get ahead when you face them again.”
Mattingly added: “It seemed like he kind of just played off one game into the next [last season] instead of staying with how he wanted to attack guys. If they jumped his fastball the first game, he may go earlier with his off-speed and not throw as many fastballs. Just kind of back and forth like that instead of just attacking the way he wanted to attack.”
Sanchez also has the luxury of Alcantara’s mentorship. Alcantara is making a concerted effort to tutor Sanchez this spring training to help him maximize his potential.
“We have a great relationship,” Sanchez said. “I really like to receive advice from Sandy. He always talks to me and tells me to keep my head up high, to keep working hard every day. It’s really good to have conversations with him and have him really close to me.”