Why are Central American immigrants fleeing their home countries?

Central American immigrants are “fleeing a horrendous, oppressive life mostly foisted on them due to US foreign policy,” according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday after US President Donald Trump authorized troops on the Southwest border with Mexico to use lethal force in order to protect Customs and Border Protection personnel from incoming migrants.

Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza confirmed to CNN that earlier reports about the White House memo were correct and the Pentagon was now allowed to carry out operations such as "crowd control, temporary detention and cursory search."

PressTV-Trump authorizes use of lethal force against migrants

President Trump has authorized use of lethal force against immigrants who try to enter the US by the way of violence.

“There are so many issues here to dissect.  If the troops are not armed, as Mattis says, how is lethal force to be used? Beaten to death by batons? What happens when they meet up with the alt-right, neo-Nazi American Firsters militias that are heading to the border to meet the asylum seekers?” Hoenig said.  

“The governor of Texas might have to call on their national guard, and from others outside of Texas, to assist. These troops are federal, just not the standing army already there. A clash between these white supremacists and the white supremacist US army would be a fascinating event,” he stated.

“Would it be a Potemkin or a Wounded Knee, not to equate innocent Indians with these white terrorist armies. There’s also the question of what kind of violence is expected? Most likely trying to rush a border, rather than shooting their way over. How the Texas police or others react would likely be an overreaction and it’s not difficult to see a massacre occurring, which would escalate, putting the soldiers and Guard in ‘harm’s way’, giving them an excuse to go full military on them,” he added.

“Bottom line, and even recently upheld by a federal judge, is that this caravan is seeking asylum in the US and for all the treaties and federal laws we have signed, it is the federal government’s responsibility to deal with them humanely. They aren’t just coming over the border just for better jobs in agriculture and the restaurant industry. They are fleeing a horrendous, oppressive life mostly foisted on them due to US foreign policy, in particular, supporting the military coup of Honduras, making it the deadliest nation in the western hemisphere,” he stated.

“There are plenty of Republicans in Congress and throughout the country who would be alarmed if posse comitatus were to be violated. So many of them are for ‘state’s rights’ that the very thought of involving the US army in a police action would have them drop what they’re doing and march in Washington, and probably with their own militias. (Oh, the irony). And isn’t that what Ruby Ridge is all about, why people are so much up in arms over what happened there?” he said.

“One element in all of this is how this president, like all before him, uses one event to divert attention from another. If things are coming down to the wire in the Mueller investigation at the same time these asylum seekers reach the border, history will be recording these actions by Trump in epic terms,” he concluded.

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