As Central America continues to experience a massive stream of northbound migration toward the United States, El Salvador has joined others in the region in placing new requirements for travelers entering the country. The new requirements primarily impact those entering the country from the continent of Africa and the nation of India, who will now face a new visa fee of $1,130 per traveler.
The new visa requirements apply to a total of fifty-seven countries and have stoked concerns among immigrant rights groups.
Jeff Abbott
Salvadoran migrants have their passports marked as they leave El Salvador during one of the caravans in November 2018.
“[El Salvador] is establishing blockades [for migrants],” Hazel Contreras, who covers El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for the Chicago-based Alianza América, tells The Progressive. “There are people from civil society [in El Salvador] who have pointed out that this is a very discriminatory and a very racist effort in terms of deciding who are the ones who can pay such a high entry fee.”
She adds, “And it is also a matter of only transit through El Salvador.”
The new visa fee stems from continued pressure by the United States government to slow immigration via airports used by migrants to ease travel times and get closer to the U.S. southern border. Immigrants often use airports in countries near the border to seek asylum in the United States.
Mexico and Guatemala have implemented new visa regimes in recent years, specifically designed to impede immigration from Venezuela and Ecuador. In El Salvador, aviation officials stated that the fee will go toward improving the airports.
The changes come in spite of complaints from the United States about the Bukele administration’s heavy hand in the country’s war against gangs under a prolonged State of Emergency.
The changes come in spite of complaints from the United States about the Bukele administration’s heavy hand in the country’s war against gangs under a prolonged State of Emergency. Human rights organizations have condemned the mass incarceration of young people as part of this crackdown.
Bukele has also faced internal criticism for running for re-election, in spite of the consecutive re-election of a head of state being illegal under the Salvadoran constitution. Yet the Biden Administration has remained silent about this, in a quid-pro-quo similar to the agreement between the Trump Administration and the administration of former Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales.
“[The agreement] is a red flag that the United States is ready to negotiate with El Salvador, [trading] silence in the face of [Bukele’s] re-election [efforts] in exchange for stopping migratory flows,” Contreras says.
The more barriers the United States puts in the route for migrants, the greater the dangers that migrants must face as they seek refuge.
In November, Doctors Without Borders issued a report about the violence migrants face passing through the heavily forested Darién Gap that divides Colombia and Panama. Sexual violence and kidnapping by criminal groups are common threats along dangerous route.
But the United States has sought to impede immigration to the north for decades, with the most recent efforts beginning prior to the 2015 arrival of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border. In 2012, then President Barack Obama’s border czar, Alan Bersin, declared: “The Guatemalan border with Chiapas is now our southern border.”
Since that time, the border has extended further south.
“The United States has extended its southern border into Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.”—Hazel Contreras
“The United States has extended its southern border into Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras,” Contreras says. “This could be interpreted as another effort to control the arrival of people at the [U.S. border with Mexico].”
The 2018 Central American migrant caravans became a catalyst for the Trump Administration to expand anti-immigration efforts. But the most recent expansions of the border have been the result of actions by the Biden Administration, which has maintained pressure on Central American governments to stem the flow of migrants through the region.
Guatemala has sought to find favor with the government of the United States, using the police and military to expel massive caravans attempting to reach the United States. In recent years Guatemala has also stepped up expulsions, with the country expelling nearly 21,000 migrants between January and October 2023, according to the Guatemalan government’s Immigration Institute.
Many of these migrants have sought to try again following their expulsion, according to years of interviews I have conducted with migrants passing through Guatemala.
Jeff Abbott
Salvadoran migrants look at a map of migratory routes through Mexico before leaving San Salvador as part of a caravan in November 2018.
Yet not all Central American countries have taken such a heavy hand against migrants. Panama and Costa Rica have begun to provide buses to bring migrants between borders. In September, however, Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves declared a state of emergency due to the number of immigrants passing through the country. He held a press conference on September 26 announcing the declaration and referencing alleged riots by migrants along the country’s borders. “I have instructed the security ministry to take a firm stance with anyone who takes Costa Rica’s kindness for weakness,” Chaves declared.
Yet in spite of all these measures, migrants continue to find means to travel north towards the United States. But these migrants are increasingly being put at risk due to the measures to control migrants. And many of these people are fleeing the countries that have become new parts of the U.S. border apparatus.
“It is because of a blind spot [along the borders] that people manage to leave through the land borders,” Contreras says.
“But it is very important to mention that in addition to the complexity of the countries of Central America as transit countries, they are also countries that highly expel their population, as they do not have decent conditions for guaranteeing the lives of its citizens,” she concludes.