Why have more than 57,000 Central American children shown up at the U.S. border?
Where are the migrants from?
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Until recently, most people crossing the Mexican border illegally into the U.S. were Mexicans looking for work. But in the past two years, the net migration from Mexico has become essentially zero. That’s partly because Mexico’s economy has improved; at the same time, the government crackdown on drug gangs there has finally eased the violence. Unfortunately, the success of Mexico’s crackdown — and another “war on drugs” in Colombia — has shifted some of the trafficking business to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where it has fueled the growth of violent gangs. Gangs now run entire towns, murder and rape almost at will, and force families and businesses to pay protection money. “For ma
