Tariffs on Mexico will harm Texas’ economy. Boost trade with Central America instead [Opinion]
![Tariffs on Mexico will harm Texas’ economy. Boost trade with Central America instead [Opinion]](/img/noticias/201906/tariffs-on-mexico-will-harm-texasrsquo-e.jpg "Tariffs on Mexico will harm Texas’ economy. Boost trade with Central America instead [Opinion]")
On May 30, President Donald Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose new tariffs on all U.S. imports from Mexico starting next Monday. This action is meant to persuade Mexico to reduce the number of immigrants reaching the Texas-Mexico border. To many, the recent increase in migration is a crisis. More than 460,000 unauthorized immigrants have been apprehended on the southern border since October, surpassing the previous fiscal year’s total of 396,579. Most people don’t realize, however, that the current immigration flows are low relative to historic standards. The border patrol apprehended 1,643,679 would-be migrants in 2000, and the number has been falling since then, according the Department of Homeland Security. What’s more, the new migrants are different from those coming in historically: The current migrants are not Mexican, they are Central American, mainly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. These immigrants are not trying to enter the country for work. Most are families seeking asylum due to economic adversity and widespread violence. According to the United Nations, El Salvador and Honduras have the two highest homicide rates in the world (Venezuela is third). If there is a crisis we should worry about, it is in Central America, not on our Mexican border. We have a bureaucratic structure in place to handle refugees, but it is underfunded relative to the current surge of refugees. Recognizing the changes in the types of migrants would allow us to allocate resources to address the concerns about the influx of refugees with established systems and potentially keep families together. The current policies...
