López Obrador’s Initial Policies Toward Central American Migrants: Implications for the U.S.

Introduction

Recent events in Mexico and Central America call for reevaluating immigration policy as it affects U.S.-Mexico relations. The first event is the upsurge of mass migration from Central America in the form of migrant caravans in 2018. The second event is Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ascension to the Mexican presidency in December 2018. The migrant caravans may represent a shift in the evolution of unauthorized immigration to the U.S. The sheer volume of people on the move, the publicity surrounding these events, and the political context in which they occur (i.e., they represent a very visible challenge to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, and they can be used as a political gimmick in the upcoming presidential election in the U.S.) have initiated a new phase in migration policy in both the U.S. and Mexico.

In response to these shifts in immigration patterns, President López Obrador had to react quickly to a situation that could become a sensitive issue within Mexico; at the same time, he had to respond to U.S. demands for curtailing the caravans. Because Mexico’s southern border is the gateway to Central American migration, including the caravans, and because López Obrador has clearly indicated that the region is important for his social and economic development plans, the southern border has increasingly gained attention both domestically and internationally. This paper discusses López Obrador’s underlying philosophy toward these issues, as well as the changes that are taking place in terms of Mexico’s migration policy. It also evaluates Central American migration as a shared policy issue for Mexico and the U.S., with particular attention to the outcomes of the caravans, the solutions López Obrador implemented to address the root causes of migration, and the U.S. reactions to these initiatives.