The International and Multi-Regional Membership Center of Latinos in the USA
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Human Trafficking & Immigration
The social occurrence observed in the last quarter of 2014 with the arrival of thousands of migrants to the south border of Unites States has exploded into some different views and
opinions. These are as diverse as the number of ethnic groups in the country. The matter has created a response in citizens and residents including illegal migrants already in the
country, and they all have expressed their opinion occasionally through public demonstrations.
In this overheated environment, the main subject shifts from one side to the other. On the one hand, the lack of attention the Obama administration has assigned to the security of the
south border, despite the many millions of dollars spent by militarizing it. In the other hand, the economic impact of the influx of illegal immigration to the already stressed national
economy.
Of the several components of illegal immigration to the USA, specifically through the US-Mexico border, national security and human trafficking are two of the most relevant in the
national discussion.
Traditionally, the traffic of illegal migrants through the south border has been in its majority of Mexican citizens in
search of employment and better salaries. Although a complex subject, many of the Mexican nationals come for a
season and return to their families after a period of working in the USA. Others have crossed the border with plans to
stay for longer periods, and many others have crossed the border to remain until immigration authorities find them
and sent back to their locations of origin.
For this last group, the hope of finding an avenue to obtain a “green card” and becoming legal permanent residents is
part of the dream and the reason they came. The resolution to remain far from their families and locations of origin
has a costly price to pay. In the center of it are family dissolution; separation of families and naturally the negative
economic impact in towns and cities experiencing an exodus to the ‘North’.
In recent times. However, a new element was added to the already complex illegal immigration of Mexican nationals
through the south border known as ‘Other Than Mexicans’ with its acronym OTMs. This new wave of illegal
migrants brings a new dimension to the already poly-dimensional trend of illegal immigration from the south.
Although the traditional migration of Mexican nationals is not recognized to be direct and primarily national security
event, the migration of OTMs has all components of a national security attack.
According to documents originated by the Department of Homeland Security and published by The Blaze, the traffic
of OTMs have increased dramatically in the Fiscal Year 2014. The following is what we know of this matter:
1. OTMs have increased a whopping 71.9 percent in Fiscal Year 2014, as compared to 2013, according to the DHS
documents.
2. The documents classified 150,000 to 170,000 undocumented migrant OTMs were "Got-Aways," in Fiscal Year 2014. In other words, these persons are believed to be in the U.S.
living without documentation and successfully bi-passed all security measures along the border.
3. 475,000 people were apprehended in Fiscal Year 2014, of that 253,159 were OTMs.
4. Federal law enforcement made an average of 441 OTM apprehensions a day.
5. Monthly, the OTM apprehensions were roughly 6,390.
Some of the OTM Apprehensions on the border are noted under a section "Nations and Special Interest Aliens - Fiscal Year 2014." Special Interest Nations, such as Iran, Iraq, Syria,
Afghanistan and Pakistan are those designated by the U.S. Department of State as sponsors of terror:
As we can see, the illegal infiltration of these multi-national foreign individuals may, in fact, make us recognize with a more acute reasoning the high risk it represents for our
national safety. In addition to the regular traffic of Mexican nationals, we need to consider that the traffic of Central and South American citizens were gaining access to our southern
border in substantial quantities.
In the center of all this illegal migration factors, we ought to ask a simple but hardliner question to us as a nation of law: In what way could we stop this illegal immigration? It is
clear that no one single solution or action is capable of solving such a complex issue.
To begin making a bit of sense in our analysis, let us ask the following question with the objective of understanding what is or what may be the cause of this tremendous immigration
to the United States. And the question is this: What is the primary reason people leave their families, land and country to come to the United States?
At the center of the answer to the question are two main reasons: Poverty and Insecurity.
Poverty is one of the most important reasons why people leave their home in search of a better life. We need to recognize the meaning of the word poverty in the context of the
different regions of the Americas. Poverty in these areas represents an actual daily per capita income may not reach more than $2.50 (USD). In this environment, the lack of
economic development carries high unemployment, low productivity, low levels of education and high social violence.
Local nationals in the different areas of the Americas experiencing an extreme poverty preventing them from providing the minimum to their loved ones have no real resource or
opportunity to move ahead with life. Hunger and the powerlessness of finding a solution to the daily series of challenges remove their dignity and immerse them in a sub-human
existence most of the time not fully understood in the US.
A new path of action surfaced as the result of desperate situations and conditions millions of people experience in the Central America region. This new path is a migration of
thousands of minors without adult supervision sent by their families on a journey to have a new life in the United Stated. This Journey, however, is for hundreds of them the first and
the last journey of their life.
Unfortunately, there are skilled individuals that see poverty and violence in these regions as the source of a lucrative trade. Human Trafficking is a new wave and a new form of
power and wealth for many international organizations of delinquents and immoral individuals. The trafficking of the very poor, unprotected men and women, young and old without
limits other than satisfying their greed and unassailable desire of easy money and power is the main objective of these international organizations.
Human Trafficking has its primary cause in extreme poverty where many individuals live in with the subsequent lack of opportunities to cover and satisfy necessities such as
employment, education, medical attention, health, and safety. It is clear that one of the main components of any solution to Human Trafficking is to eradicate poverty. Expanding and
generating economic development to all regions of the Americas identified as areas of the low economic level will remove the cause of this social illness.
Although the solutions to the cause of Human Trafficking in the paper seems to be rather simple to express, there are enormous and complex obstacles to make this happen. There are
a large number of questions to address. Some of these questions will come from the different nations of the Americas participating in such a project. The origin of the funding
required to produce the expected results in the region is subject of other conversations. Who manages such projects? Who handles distributing funding in the different regions? How
is this supervised? These and many more questions of the same tenor will prove this to be a complex international endeavor.
One thing is easy to forecast: If the many regions of the Americas experiencing extreme poverty continue in the same situation, Human Trafficking with all its horrors and sub-human
tragedies will continue to grow. The delinquent international organization will develop more in power and sophistication not only in material resources but also in structure, technical
and organizational components turning into networks of specialized illegal multinational corporations.
What is that you the reader can do to help eradicate this catastrophe? What is we all can do, or better yet, what is that we all are willing to do to eradicate Human Trafficking?
Websites to visit
Polaris – Freedom Happens Now –
https://www.polarisproject.org/take-action/365-days
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org/states
FBI in Human Trafficking
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/human_trafficking
A fallen barbed wire fence is the only barrier between Mexico and the
United States as illegal migrants cross near the town of Sasabe, state
of Sonora, Mexico in this file photo taken Thursday, April 1, 2004.
U.S. Border Patrol officials are seeing a significant increase in the
number of illegal immigrants being smuggled through what’s known
as the Sasabe corridor southwest of Tucson. (AP Photo/Guillermo
Arias, File)
Iraq-6
Lebanon-9
Egypt-18
Syria-13
Morocco-5
Tunisia-1
Pakistan-30
Russia-29
Turkey-55
Yemen-6
Afghanistan-4
China-1,668
Albania- 305
Sierra Leone-3
Liberia-7
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