What's happening at the southern border now?

Despite much news coverage about unaccompanied children and families crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico, few reporters explain the truth. I have my own theories about why, which I'll explain below.

First, most people coming across the border with Mexico today are not, strictly speaking, economic migrants, but rather they're fleeing endemic violence first and foremost.

Second, what we're seeing is not new.

Lets consider the first point. Most people fleeing across the southern border are families and children. Why is that? In my experience working with many folks who have come across the southern border, most are fleeing targeted and extreme violence in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras (a region called the "Northern Triangle"). Therefore, most people coming across the southern border are not Mexicans. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security readily admits this. In the past, I've written many times about the fact that most people coming across the border are fleeing violence first and foremost. It's certainly true that the Northern Triangle countries are breathtakingly poor. But what's pushing most people to flee now -- with their children, as opposed to sending over one family member to work here and send money home -- is endemic violence. Therefore, I, and others in the field, call this kind of migration "forced;" that is, the U.S. government has tried to deter and punish people for coming across the border to seek protection here, but the violence is so bad, people feel compelled to come anyways.

Second, forced migration from the Northern Triangle is not new. It started before Biden and Trump. Take a look at this coverage of forced migration from the Northern Triangle from 2016 and this coverage from 2015. The reasons causing people to flee from the Northern Triangle are entrenched and have been happening since at least 2014, some say earlier.

So why aren't reporters making these points more clear? As an immigration attorney who specializes in working with undocumented people who seek protection from some kind of violence in their home country, I know that it takes a certain amount of trust and rapport for traumatized people to open up about being victimized or threatened with death. Most people are unlikely to spill this kind of scary and stigmatizing information to a reporter assigned to the border. Particularly if asked an open ended question like, why are you coming to the United States? Most people are unlikely to spell out that they were victimized. It can be embarrassing, stigmatizing and painful to recount these stories, especially to a stranger who may not understand. In my experience, many people who come here seeking protection are told by jaded border officers that they're lying about being victimized in their native countries and not to even think they could win asylum here. So it's not hard to understand why many are tight lipped with strangers about their true stories.