Ending the “Immigration Problem”
"The challenges ahead are formidable. But if the political will exists, there is no reason Central America cannot become the next great success story of the Western Hemisphere.”
— President Joe Biden (1)
"We also. . .must address the root causes that cause people to make the trek, as the President has described, to come here."
— Vice President Kamala Harris (2)
The Mayan people of Central America and Mexico* know about the root causes for making long treks.
In ancient times, the wealthy and powerful elites forced the people to build magnificent cities and pyramids in Guatemala’s Peten and Mexico’s Yucatan. By draining swamps, decimating forests, and exploiting resources, they destroyed their economies and changed the climate. In the end, the people abandoned their cities and fled to the mountains where they lived off the land – with the land – and successfully developed their own small farm-based economies.
Until recently.
Today they are forced to abandon their communities and seek refuge once again – in the US. Like before, the culprits are wealthy elites who have created a modern international economic system that is repeating the mistakes of history – a Death Economy that is ravaging resources, changing the climate, and exploiting people.
US politicians and media describe what is happening as an “immigration problem.” However, the mass migrations are not the problem; they are a symptom of this failing economic system. The US’s past attempts to slow immigration by stopping people at the border or helping countries police their people and detain them from attempting to cross the border is the equivalent of trying to halt the rising oceans by building sea walls.
Currently, US policy makers are recommending an approach based on the reconstruction activities the United States and our allies implemented in Europe and Asia after World War II. Those strategies included economic stimuli that rebuilt infrastructure, financed the construction of new factories and other businesses, spurred employment, and forgave national debts. While those approaches were very successful in war-torn countries of the mid 20th Century, Central America and Mexico face different obstacles in today’s world – mainly in the form of policies that support powerful international corporations.
In Central America, the underlying problems that must be addressed are the extremely unfair laws that govern commerce between those countries and the US.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world’s remaining superpower, the United States, promoted and implemented “free-trade agreements,” such as NAFTA and CAFTA. Many analysts recognize these as one-sided, primarily benefiting US corporations and the ruling elites of Latin American countries. For example, they prohibit tariffs on imports of US agricultural products that compete with local Latin farmers but allow the US to subsidize its agri-businesses. Thus, American corporations can sell US-grown corn, rice, cotton and other products to Central America and Mexico for less than it costs local farmers to grow them. The spin-offs to the millions of people who own or work for small businesses that process, transport, market, and consume these goods is huge. The failed economies result in desperation that leads to violence, gangs, and other conditions that make life unbearable and drive people to attempt the horribly risky trek to the US.
In addition to the lives destroyed south of the Rio Grande, we in the US are also hit with a huge financial burden.
First, our tax dollars subsidize inefficient businesses here at home. Farmers received more than $22 billion in subsidies in 2019. (3) Second, the budget requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to apprehend, detain, and remove unauthorized immigrants” was more than $30 billion in 2019. (4) Since DHS’s 2003 creation, more than $300 billion has been spent on immigration enforcement. (5) And it has not worked.
President Biden and Vice President Harris have made commitments to implement programs that echo those of post-WWII reconstruction activities. If implemented properly and with a recognition that such programs need to be directed at helping small farmers, coops, and family-owned businesses, they can stimulate the economy and reduce migration. Yet, they are not enough.
In the final analysis, unfair trade agreements must be replaced. But, of course, powerful interests are hell-bent on maintaining the status quo. These include agri-businesses, corporations that exploit the people and natural resources of Central America and Mexico, those that enjoy the fruits of DHS’s budget, and the stores where we shop for low-priced goods. All of these forces will fight any politician or government official who supports fair trade (as opposed to “free trade”) agreements.
Ending the “immigration problem” will take a concerted effort on the part of the American people. North American, South American and Central American. We may all learn by listening to the voices of the ancient Mayas. They are reverberating off the walls of excavated pyramids and other sacred sites that are emerging from the jungles. Mayan teachers and shamans today are calling them forth and helping us understand how we today must change. (see my event, A Journey To The Lands Of The Maya (Guatemala).
What You Can Do
Keep spreading the true story behind the reasons people are fleeing Central America and Mexico – the facts behind US subsidies and “free trade” agreements;
Demand that your elected officials oppose laws that support the exploitation of Central Americans and Mexicans by international corporations and support new “fair trade” agreements;
Buy Fair Trade products that support local farmers and cooperatives south of the US border; and
Join me at Mayan sacred sites and the excavated ancient cities; learn directly from the Mayan people and their shamans the lessons of history and how the Prophecy of 2012 offers guidance to a better future; and support the local economies: Join here.
*Although people often think of Mexico as part of Central America, it is classified as a North American country, along with the US and Canada