MCALLEN, Texas — The government of Honduras is using the current immigration crisis as a learning experience to improve the overall situation inside its own borders in order to keep people from wanting to leave officials said.
Breitbart Texas spoke with Mireya Aguero de Corrales, Honduras’ foreign minister and current ambassador to the U.S. about the current situation in her country and about the changes to come as they start receiving the hundreds of individuals that are getting deported. The ambassador had travelled to McAllen to see first-hand the issues facing the citizens of her country and to speak with various officials including U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar. The American congressman has made headlines in recent months because even though he is a decomcrat, he has been critical of the President Barack Obama for not having visited South Texas to experience first-hand the border crisis.
One of the key factors scaring people away from Honduras is the rise in violence tied to drug cartels.
“Ninety seven percent of the violent crime in Honduras is tied to drug cartels,” Aguero said.
The rise was due in part to the success of the strategies against drug trafficking in Columbia and in Mexico which pushed drug cartels into Honduras where they found a haven between the place where drugs are produced and the place where drugs are wanted, the ambassador said.
Most recently, the government of Honduras has targeted and dismantled 12 smuggling organizations in blind spots along the Honduran border.
One of the topics that Aguero addressed is the rumor that had been circulating through social media, that several recently deported children had been killed upon returning to Honduras. So far, the country has not been receiving any flights of unaccompanied children and she said she didn’t have any information to substantiate that rumor.
As the country begins to receive daily flights of deported adults and family units, the country is focusing on welcoming them back with new job opportunities and other incentives to help keep them there. One of the main programs is called “Con Chamba Se Vive Mejor” which is Spanish for with work you can live better, a program that helps people get jobs. Those returning to Honduras who have experience in the service, construction or agricultural fields get moved to the front of the line in order to help them stay rather than plan their next trip north, she said.
Congressman Henry Cuellar told Breitbart Texas that while the number of immigrants getting detained in the Rio Grande Valley appears to be going down, it is likely tied to the hot temperatures of the summer.
However, rather than sit back and relax, America needs to learn from the crisis and get not only a security measure passed but also a measure to help countries in Central America be prosperous through economy and education, Cuellar said.
One of the measures that he is now looking into is finding funding through the federal government to refund the moneys spent by municipalities to care for the waves of immigrants. Another of the measures is that according to FEMA, Texas has $24 million in unused federal moneys that Cuellar plans on asking the state to refund the cities.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter: @ildefonsoortiz