Policy Proposals to Address the Central American Migration Challenge

This policy brief from the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) begins by noting that the Trump administration’s enforcement-only approach to stem the flow of Central American migrants has neither stemmed the flow nor improved the U.S. immigration system’s ability to manage migration in general. The brief presents a set of policy recommendations for addressing the migrant crisis. These include changes to the asylum system, measures to be taken at the border, and bilateral and multilateral efforts with Mexico and the countries of Central America. Regarding the asylum system, the authors urge an increase in asylum system and immigration court resources to make more timely decisions on asylum claims—prioritizing recent cases at the border, so that new cases are not added to the immigration court backlog. At the border, BPC recommends building more infrastructure to handle asylum claims, and reversing counterproductive policies, such as separating children from non-parent relatives, leading to false claims of parentage. Finally, there are a number of recommendations for working with Mexico and the countries of Central America to protect migrants in those countries in the short term, and to help the Central American countries, in particular, to attack the root causes of migration—lack of safety and opportunity. (Maurice Belanger, Maurice Belanger Consulting)

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