Photo/La Opinión

By Guillermo Alvarado

In one of the largest anti-immigrant operations carried out in recent times, Mexican authorities discovered a group of more than 650 people, many of them minors, traveling hidden in six refrigerated containers.

The event took place in the state of Tamaulipas, on the border with the United States, where the trucks carrying the human cargo were stopped at an army checkpoint.

Of these, 564 are Guatemalans and the rest are from Honduras, El Salvador and other nationalities.

The case demonstrates that the flow of undocumented immigrants trying to reach the United States is far from diminishing, despite the restrictive measures maintained by Joe Biden's administration, which are essentially the same as those imposed by former President Donald Trump.

Biden promised during his campaign to employ other methods to curb the exodus to his country and appointed his vice-president, Kamala Harris, to take charge of the matter, but outside of a few meetings, nothing changed.

There was talk of promoting a comprehensive development plan for the Northern Triangle of Central America, formed by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, one of the poorest areas of the region and the main source of migrants, but so far no concrete actions have been taken.

Misery, increased by the covid-19 pandemic, along with violence, administrative corruption, which cuts resources for public investment in vital areas such as education, health or housing, and lack of employment, remain the main cause of this human tragedy.

As long as these evils remain unresolved, there will be no administrative or police measure that will prevent many people from starting a journey with an improbable prognosis, which will always be better, or so they think, than the life without future to which they are subjected in their country.

This explains in some way the growing participation of young people, adolescents and even children in these groups. In the operation carried out in Mexico, the presence of 320 minors was verified, which indicates the degree of desperation of their families.

It is not a matter of the United States opening its doors to whoever wants to enter, as this does not solve the root of the problem.

Migration is a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity since its earliest days, but now we are facing a real mass flight due to a serious situation of precariousness, for whose causes Washington is one of the main responsible.