Immigration security

Coyotes, US Immigration Misinformation Still Major Factor For Central America Migration, GAO Says

This week Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), ranking member and former chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, issued a statement saying a new audit report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) “confirm[ed] that endemic violence and economic distress in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – the Northern Triangle – are driving factors that compel children and parents to make a desperate decision and flee to the United States.”

But GAO’s audit report indicated the principal reason for the Central American exodus to the US “was likely triggered, according to US officials, by several emergent factors such as the increased presence and sophistication of human smugglers (known as coyotes) and confusion over US immigration policy.”