The Northern Triangle - Part I

Current statistics on asylum seekers in our area indicate that the guests we hope to assist will be migrants from Central America, specifically people fleeing the troubled nations of the Northern Triangle (sometimes called the Golden Triangle): El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This week’s “Works” post will be the first of a four-part series on this long-suffering part of the world. The recent surge of migrants from this region has forced governments throughout our hemisphere to re-examine policies, altering trade relations, foreign aid, and immigration enforcement practices. Some actions by the current U.S. administration, including the separation of migrant families and deploying the military to the border, have stirred much controversy. In recent years, on average, about 265,000 people have left the Northern Triangle annually. For 2019, this number is on track to more-than double. Some of these migrants seek asylum in other parts of Latin America or in Europe. But most of them choose to make the dangerous trek northward through Mexico to the United States. Unlike past waves of migrants, in which most have attempted to cross our border illegally without detection, current migrants from the Northern Triangle often surrender to U.S. border patrol agents to claim asylum. The reason for the increase in asylum seekers is as simple as it is horrifying: People of the Northern Triangle are fleeing their homes in increasing numbers because life in their nations has grown increasingly intolerable.

Over the coming weeks the "Works" blog will be taking a closer look at the reasons these Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans have been forced to become seekers of asylum.