In a recent post, I speculated that the huge surge of immigrants at the border was not likely just an organic occurrence. I postulated that perhaps Putin or some Roger Stone-like Republican operatives might be fueling this fire. It turns out that I was not too far off the mark. In the Boston Globe this morning, Marcela Garcia, authored an article outlining how Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, has been using migrants as both political pawns and a source of profit.
The United States has imposed sanctions on some of Ortega’s political allies and some of the country’s economic sectors. President Ortega is hoping to stoke the chaos at the U.S. border to pressure the Biden administration to lift these sanctions. The U.S. imposed these sanctions because of Ortega’s oppressive and authoritarian rule. He has “shut down hundreds of civic society organizations and most media outlets, overseen a systematic crackdown on the Catholic Church, and pushed nearly all of the opposition into exile.”1
The normal route migrants take to get to the U.S. border involves transiting the infamous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama and then on up through Mexico. Ortega has implemented something like the ‘migrant express’ which facilitates potential migrants to fly directly to Nicaragua thus avoiding having to cross the dangerous Darien Gap. These migrants are not just from South or Central America. They come from all over the globe. The Associated Press reported roughly 268 charter flights with migrants from Haiti had arrived in Nicaragua between August and October of last year.
This is also a very profitable enterprise for Nicaragua (read Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who also happens to be his vice president!). A recent charter flight on its way to Nicaragua was recently detained in France. There were 303 Indian passengers on board, some of whom had paid between $48,000 and $150,000 to get on the plane!!
President Ortega is acutely aware of the sensitivity surrounding the whole immigration issue with respect to the upcoming presidential election in the U.S. By implementing the Nicaraguan ‘migrant express’ he is hoping to stoke the flames, put pressure on the U.S. to lift the current sanctions and make a nice profit in the meantime. At this point, there is really no downside for Ortega.
I’m not sure what the solution to this problem is. However, it is clear there are multiple players who are benefiting by stoking the immigration problem rather than trying to solve it. The Republicans would prefer to continue to use this issue as a cudgel against Biden in the upcoming election. They have absolutely no incentive to try to solve this problem. President Ortega, while he’d like to have the sanctions lifted, he is making a lot of money operating the ‘migrant express’ so there is no incentive for him to do anything other than allow more charter flights to land in Nicaragua. Vladimir Putin is a winner because he can benefit from the chaos without having to lift a finger.
The bottom line is that the immigration and border issues are far more complex than most people are aware. They will not be solved by building a wall. The only way this problem will be resolved is for the various parts of the government and the two political parties to act like adults, get in a room, discuss various solutions, formulate policies that address all of the geopolitical issues contributing to this situation and, provide the financial resources to implement the plans they come up with. As long as there are incentives for not solving this problem and politicians and rogue governments will profit politically or financially from the ongoing chaos, it will continue to be a crisis.
The Republicans’ insistence on using this issue for political benefit rather than working to constructively address the situation might be benefitting their short-term political aspirations. It is surely benefitting people like Daniel Ortega and Vladimir Putin. But it is certainly not benefitting the people of the United States, which many of us naively believe is in the job description for members of Congress! More chaos ahead!
