Who Profits From Illegal Immigration? A Look at the Forces That Drive the Exodus

Suzy McCall and some of her adopted children./courtesy of LAMB

Jesus Street asked Suzy McCall, the “Mother Teresa” of Honduras, to share her views on illegal immigration and the recent separation of migrant families at our Southern border. Suzy is a missionary and founder of LAMB Institute, a Christian outreach serving the most poor and vulnerable in Tegucigalpa. 

by Suzy McCall

First of all, immigration through the Mexico-USA border has always been one of the following:  (1) a desperate run for freedom, (2) a collaboration between immigrants and U.S. employers, or (3) trafficking (for sex, porn, slave labor).  One of the reasons the border has never been “secured” is because there are many interests on the U.S. side which are fueled by illegal immigration.

It hasn’t really mattered which political party is in power in the USA in regards to illegal immigration.  As with all things chaotic and evil, money and power have taken precedence over law and order.  Think about it: how could the USA not have been able to have more secure borders???  The borders are insecure because people in high places are taking care of the folks who profit from illegal immigration. 

Illegal immigration is Big Business.

Secondly, even a cursory look at U.S. intervention in Central America over the past 100 years reveals atrocities that will make (should make) our blood run cold.  How many thousands of Central Americans have died so that the “northerners” can hold a strategic military position, control the rich agricultural fields, forests of pine and mahogany, oceans of lobster and other seafood delights, minerals, extensive fruit orchards, herds of cattle, and the most precious resource of all: Honduran people.

Babies and children have been stolen and sold for adoption for many years.  The men and women who harvest crops are practically slaves (see Ramon Amaya Amador’s “Green Prison”).  And now with the sex/porn trade at unbelievable levels, and the insatiable market in the USA, Honduran women and children by the hundreds are being fed into the human trafficking market.

                                                                                                         Courtesy of the author

Suzy says: the photo is of Dilcia and Alex Eduardo when they came to LAMB four years ago.  Dilcia was 15. She only stayed a short time, and then ran back to where her family lives, about three hours from here.  She left Alexito with us, who just graduated from kindergarten.  A few months ago, Dilcia was found dead in a hotel room.  She undoubtedly was working in the sex trade.  She was a sweet child caught in the tide of poverty, oppression of women, and violence. 

GOVERNMENTS PLAY A PART

Maybe you’re thinking that our own corrupt Honduran governments are to blame for all of this pain and destruction, and it cannot be denied that there have been cruel, greedy collaborators in power in Honduras.

They are just minions, though, of the USA – right up to the most recent election this past year when Juan Orlando Hernandez violated the Honduran constitution by running again, and then lost anyway, but declared himself the winner because he knew the USA would back him, which it did.  In return, Hernandez will allow the USA to continue to exploit Honduran resources, including the children now in U.S. custody, about whom Hernandez has said absolutely nothing. 

What are the plans for those thousands of young people and children?  Nobody is saying. The silence, for me at least, is deafening. What will they be used for once the political dust has settled?? 

VICTIMS, NOT CRIMINALS

Finally, it is incredible to me that these immigrants are seen as criminals rather than victims. 

Honduras is NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD in murders per capita.  Gangs rule in most of the large, inner city neighborhoods.  They are ruthless.  Unemployment is somewhere around 65%.  Inflation is crippling the few who have jobs. The government has bankrupted almost every public fund, including the public hospitals and schools.

 A Honduran can work many hours each day doing backbreaking labor without making enough to feed a family of four.  Add to that the endless anxiety about whether or not you will be killed today by one of the thousands of delinquents roaming the streets, or whether or not your child will be snatched by a gang member, or whether or not you will be robbed and raped because you (unknowingly) chose a taxi that is part of a sex trafficking network. 

These are not rare occurrences; they happen all the time, every day. I cannot even count the stories I have heard, and our own young people have not been spared.  I also live with this anxiety about my family and friends. 

In the midst of all of this murder and mayhem, though, North Americans continue to visit Honduras, and the friendship that has always existed between the two countries is nurtured — not a friendship of governments, but a friendship between two peoples. North Americans who come to Honduras fall in love with the Honduran people, and deep sharing occurs.  

Many Hondurans think that people in the USA are like them, and would welcome and protect them, and some do. As we know, though, there is also a lot of hatred awaiting immigrating Hondurans; despite this, thousands have been willing to risk their lives to make the journey because to remain here would mean suffering and death.  Young men and women do not want their children to be hungry and frightened every day while being watched by gangs and traffickers who are just waiting for the right moment to snatch them.  Little did they know that the Border Patrol was waiting to do the same thing! 

LIKE KIDNAPPING

Although I have never helped anyone go to the States illegally, and although I understand perfectly the importance of immigration laws, I am deeply distraught over what has happened with the separation of families in particular.   Kidnapping is a capital offense for a reason:  it is the cruelest of crimes.  

Taking a child forcibly from his/her parents has always been considered murderous.  To take these children without any intention of giving them back EVER is unthinkable.  I have lost sleep, wept, ranted.  I feel so helpless against something so demonic and beyond my reach.

There is no argument or defense for these separations, at least not to me as I sit before Jesus, who I believe is also weeping.  This travesty transcends politics.  It is not a party issue.  It is sin, and I believe it will be the work of the Church to attempt to “make it right.”   Much of the damage is irreparable, but we must spend ourselves in the Name of Jesus to bring these families back together. 

As I write these words, I am aware that I am writing to men and women who are followers of Christ.  I do not hope in the world or in governments.  My words hold no meaning for people who do not fear God.  

There are nine million souls in Honduras, and after the fraudulent election, a constituent of the usurper who is our President wrote on social media, “Honduras only needs four million people.”  That gave me goosebumps.  To read with my own eyes what those who want the world for themselves really think was heart-stopping.  That thousands of people are leaving Honduras is what is wanted by those who desire to control the country.  That thousands more are murdered is also desirable.  Human trafficking is one of their strategies.  Giving the gangs free reign, opening the borders, remaining silent while U.S. border agents imprison children – these horrors are the delight of the world’s rulers.

BUT WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN.  WE ARE FOLLOWERS OF THE LAMB.  FOR US, EACH HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED.  JESUS DIED ON A CROSS BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT ANYONE TO BE LOST.   HE CALLED THE CHILDREN INTO HIS ARMS, AND HE TOLD US TO BE LIKE THEM IF WE WANT TO LIVE IN HIS KINGDOM.   THERE ARE NO “ACCEPTABLE LOSSES” IN THE BATTLE FOR GOD’S KINGDOM, IN WHICH WE ARE ALL KEEPERS OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS. 

So for me, although the focus is on illegal immigration, the real issue goes much deeper:   For whom am I living?  If we live for ourselves, then we are driven by fear and selfishness.  If we live for Christ, we are free to relinquish all of our human rights in exchange for the Divine privilege to LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY.  I pray we will have the courage to live for the One who gave all so that we might know His heart and walk in a freedom which heals and liberates and incarnates Truth and Spirit.  Amen and Amen.

                                                                                                            Map/Courtesy of LAMB

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http://www.lambinstitute.org/suzy-mccall

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