Regional Enforcement: A Profile of Migrants Deported from the United States and Mexico to the Northern Triangle

Together, the United States and Mexico have apprehended almost 1 million people who are from the Northern Triangle of Central America in the past five years, deporting more than 800,000 of them. Approximately 130,000 of those apprehended were children, more than 40,000 of them deported between 2010 to 2014. While the surge of unaccompanied children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014 generated intense media interest, little debate has focused on Mexico’s increasing enforcement role, the effect of combined U.S. and Mexican enforcement on Central American migration patterns, and the characteristics of the population deported to the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

On this webinar, marking the release of an MPI report on these topics, authors present an overview of regional immigration enforcement trends, including U.S. and Mexican apprehensions and deportations of both children and adults, along with a demographic, socioeconomic, and criminal profile of child and adult deportees. Researchers present their analysis of how Mexico’s growing enforcement efforts are impacting migration from Central America to the United States, and discuss migration policies that establish workable enforcement and humanitarian protection.