U.S. Exports Migrant Policy To Mexico

The onetime flood of Central American immigrants to the US is now being stopped in Mexico. We’ll look at what that means.

Europe’s migrant crisis has been all over the headlines for months now, desperate Syrian refugees and more at Europe’s doorstep. Outcry when they’re beaten back, beaten down. Meanwhile, America’s migrant crisis, refugee crisis, has gone silent. But not gone away. The tide of Central American children and more that hit the US southern border in 2014 is now being largely stopped and turned back, with American support, in Mexico. Stopped, herded, beaten, raped, robbed. It’s still out there. We just don’t see it. This hour On Point, stopping the tide in Mexico, and what that means.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author. Author of the book, "Enrique's Journey." (@SLNazario)

Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the U.S. Immigration Policy Institute. Former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

New York Times: The Refugees at Our Door — "In the past 15 months, at the request of President Obama,Mexico has carried out a ferocious crackdown on refugees fleeing violence in Central America. The United States has given Mexico tens of millions of dollars for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to stop these migrants from reaching the United States border to claim asylum."

The Guardian: Mexico's migration crackdown escalates dangers for Central Americans -- "The Mexican crackdown has clearly been devised in tandem with the US government. Thomas Shannon, counselor to US secretary of state John Kerry, told the Senate appropriations committee in July what the US government planned to do to prevent a repeat of the surge. One of the main planks of the strategy was 'improving the ability of Mexico to interdict migrants before they cross into Mexico.'"

NPR News: Mass Deportation May Sound Unlikely, But It's Happened Before — "During the 1930s and into the 1940s, up to 2 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were deported or expelled from cities and towns across the U.S. and shipped to Mexico. According to some estimates, more than half of these people were U.S. citizens, born in the United States."

Campbell Clark, chief political writer for the Globe and Mail. (@camrclark)

Globe and Mail: For Harper, it’s a majority government or nothing at all -- "If the current poll results worry Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, another number represents his biggest obstacle: 170, the number of seats it takes to win a majority in the Commons. The politics of the next minority Parliament will make it hard for him to hold onto power, even if he has the biggest block of seats."