As caravans of migrants are arriving at Tijuana, US President Donald Trump is still turning a cold shoulder to these migrants and deploys troops to secure the southern border from their “invasion.” The immigrant flow from Central America has become one of the major political issues that “haunt” the US government.

Why do the migrants escape from their home countries? Oscar Chacon, co-founder and executive director of Alianza Americas, gives us a simple answer - desperation. The migrants are facing the daily threat of death in the most turbulent areas in Central America, and they are suffering from systemic poverty and exclusion.

The popular idea is that the US is to blame for the crisis. According to Alan McPherson, the United States indeed played its role of destabilizing and encouraging war in Central American countries, which could become a potential source of violence in the US since a lot of displaced people fled to the US and formed gangs as it was hard for them to find jobs immediately.

The caravan reflects the looming prospect of the situation in Central America, and the only way to reduce the immigration flow is to improve people's lives in their own countries. As Mark Feierstein analyzes, denying asylums and separating families won't stop the flow, nor would cutting the assistance as it would be counter-productive. He finds an incremental gain in Honduras and holds the idea that a consistent and abundant financial aid would improve government in the long term.

Raphael Bernal, the staff writer with the Hill, addresses that the current problem with the foreign aids from the United States is that they often end up in the wrong places where the institutional problems - lack of transparency, corruption - have led to a series of challenges to the effective use of foreign assistance. It may serve to explain why the aids tripled under the final term of the Obama administration but there is no sign of major differences in these countries.

Mark and Oscar share their worries that the institutional failure in utilizing foreign assistance to improve their social and economic situation has become the central problem here. Mark explains that the decrease in investment is because of the lack of confidence. Oscar further points to the problem that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is lagging much behind the revenue that comes into these countries by way of remittances. FDI indeed creates job opportunities in the area. However, these jobs failed to provide a minimum standard that allows people to fulfill their basic social and economic needs. The main reason is that the great gap in wage between the US and Central American countries encourages people to migrate into the US.

The Trump administration's immigration policy is more offensive and based on racism and national orientation. Mark evaluates the policy as being practical but ruthless at the same time. Trump maintains the programs that aim to reduce crime but shows a much weaker commitment to addressing the democracy and human rights concerns in the region.

Regarding the immigration topic and the impact of it on US domestic politics, Rafael holds a rather pessimistic view. Though more engagement is being made by both parties, there is little chance that there will be a bipartisan fix on the problem. 

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