Central America Is Safer Than Some American Cities. What This Means for Asylum Claims | Opinion
Robert Cherry , professor emeritus at Brooklyn College
On 6/28/21 at 10:21 AM EDT
Vice President Harris' reluctant trip to the southern border reflects nothing so much as the highly contentious nature of illegal immigration. On the Left you have pro-immigration activists contending that asylum seekers are fleeing extreme violence and demanding a fully open border. On the Right you have critics nostalgic for President Trump's absolutist and even cruel policies. And of course, both are operating with a deficit of fact.
So here are some facts that question both narratives.
While many Central American immigrants coming into the U.S. through our southern border may have been fleeing substantial violence six or seven years ago, more recent statistics bring this claim into question. In El Salvador, the homicide rate per 100,000 declined from 81 in 2015 to 36 in 2019, to 20 in 2020. In Honduras, the rate declined from 86 in 2012 to 44 in 2019, to 35 in 2020. In Guatemala, it declined from 31 in 2014 to 22 in 2019 to15 in 2020.
https://www.newsweek.com/central-america-safer-some-american-cities-what-this-means-asylum-claims-opinion-1604719
