Migration from the countries of northern Central America to the United States has been reduced by more than 75% since last May, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said Thursday in Honduras.
Since May 2019, “the US Customs and Border Protection office has seen a reduction of more than 75% in irregular migration flows on the southwest border” with Mexico, the official said in a speech in Honduras.
Wolf participated Thursday with the Ministers of Security of the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras), plus those of Costa Rica and Panama, in the Regional Conference of Security.
The official added that the efforts between the United States and the countries of Central America to improve security and economic prosperity are positive.
According to Wolf, in 2018 activists persuaded Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans to travel in dangerous caravans to the United States, and criminal organizations cheated people by taking away their savings to take them on a deadly journey.
The Homeland Security Secretary said that the Honduran government established checkpoints to search for children not accompanied by adults traveling in caravans, while Guatemalan authorities repatriated more than 700 people.
Wolf believed that joint efforts have resulted in a reduction in homicide rates in Central American countries and said that the International Development Finance Corporation, an institution belonging to the World Bank, is committed to supporting economic growth in the region.
Migrants who left in caravans from Honduras at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 and 2020 argued that they were fleeing insecurity and lack of opportunities in the countries of northern Central America.
