This text, originally published in Ideas de Izquierda México before Donald Trump’s inauguration, examines the anti-immigration, xenophobic, and racist policies of the United States in recent years, policies designed to exacerbate the exploitation and criminalization of migrants. Influenced by the slow growth of the international economy, these policies use the plight of migrants as a tool of social control, exposing their vulnerability to capitalist exploitation. These policies clearly reflect the subordination of Latin American countries to U.S. imperialism.
Migrants are often forced to leave their places of origin due to a lack of opportunities, increased violence, and the pillaging by organized crime groups, among other causes, and they are consequently obliged to seek better living conditions in other countries in the hope of finding a better future for themselves and their families. Many, however, now find themselves in the heart of imperialism, facing restrictive policies that criminalize them. Soon, they will be forced to submit to anti-immigration laws and face the mass deportations announced by President Donald Trump.
Historically, migration has been a phenomenon deeply connected to the structures of economic and political power. Today, it remains a key axis in global dynamics. In this context, this article aims to address migrants’ living conditions. We will also look at the structures that drive and perpetuate migratory flows, structures that are inherent to the policies of control and management that the ruling classes, imperialist powers, and transnational corporations impose internationally. Likewise, these dynamics — including Mexico’s internal policies, its current relationship with the U.S., and the pressures of the USMCA (the free trade agreement between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada that replaced NAFTA during Trump’s previous term) — must be understood within the framework of an unequal global system, anchored in dependence, which favors the imperialist powers.
Migration as an Instrument of Social and Political Control
The flow of migration from Mexico to the United States is a clear example of how imperialist countries use migration as a tool for social and political control. Through policies of criminalization, the United States has created an environment in which migrants are presented as a threat to national stability and, at the same time, as a source of cheap labor. The policies of the first Trump administration, followed in many respects by the Biden administration, have turned migration into a matter of national security. The border wall, mass detentions, and the deportation of thousands of migrants are examples of how migration policy is used to strengthen imperialist control over borders while reinforcing the division between the working classes of both countries and the region.
This approach to security has been backed by the policies of Mexico, under the Morena party governments of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and current president Claudia Sheinbaum. Although in their discourse they present themselves as defenders of the rights of migrants, in practice they submit to the pressures of the United States. The immigration policy of Mexico, just over 100 days into Sheinbaum’s term in office, has been characterized by submission to U.S. demands, as evidenced by the country’s cooperation in detaining and deporting migrants.
Socioeconomic Conditions in Latin America and the Causes of Migration
In recent years, migrant caravans have been leaving Central America for the United States via Mexico as a direct response to capitalist exploitation. This is the result of a complex interaction of socioeconomic, political, and historical factors. This includes imperialist interventions, the free market economic policies imposed by the great powers and the plundering of natural resources by foreign companies, which have stripped Latin America and the Caribbean of their resources, deepening violence in the region and leaving large sections of the population in conditions of structural poverty.
Data from the World Bank (2020) 1WB (2020). World Bank Annual Report 2020. Washington, D.C. Accessed in January 2025 at http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/649221601569431604/Main-Report indicate that about 30 percent of the population of Latin America lives in extreme poverty, driving migration as a response to the lack of economic opportunities. Likewise, Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the most unequal regions in the world, with a Gini index (a term for an index that measures social inequality) 2The Gini index is a measure of inequality where 0 is the value indicating perfect equality, that is, the entire population has the same income, and 1 indicates total inequality of 0.49, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 3ECLAC (2024). CEPALSTAT: Portal of inequalities in Latin America. Accessed in January 2025 at https://statistics.cepal.org/portal/inequalities/incomes.html?lang=es&indicator=3289
This means that there is an unequal distribution of wealth, which affects large sectors of the population. In other words, a significant proportion of resources and income is concentrated in the hands of a small elite, which represents the ruling class and the so-called upper classes, while a large part of the population has limited or no access to these resources, in particular the working class, the peasantry, indigenous peoples, and the urban poor. Although it is not the maximum value, 0.49 is relatively high compared to other regions of the world, which is characteristic of economies with high levels of poverty and social exclusion.
On the other hand, countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala face extremely high levels of violence, with homicide rates among the highest in the world. Although the Salvadoran authorities indicate that in 2024 homicides were reduced by 26 percent, 40 percent fewer than in 2023, the Prensa Gráfica newspaper reports that Mexico’s homicide rate is about 52 per 100,000 inhabitants.4La Prensa Gráfica (2025). Oficialismo afirma que El Salvador cerró 2024 con 114 homicidios. Accessed in January 2025 at https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Oficialismo-afirma-que-El-Salvador-cerro-2024-con-114-homicidios-20250101-0004.html
Furthermore, in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, foreign companies have taken control of large tracts of land, often hand in hand with organized crime. Entire communities that previously depended on these resources for their survival have been displaced and are now directly linked to the capitalist and state powers. According to the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB) 5AMPB (2020). Report Forced Displacement in Central America: The Impact of Mining and Land Grabbing, more than 100,000 people have been displaced from their land due to mining and the exploitation of natural resources.
U.S. imperialist interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean play an important role in these processes. For example, the financing of governments and paramilitary forces has exacerbated violence and instability in the region. This has created unsustainable living conditions that force people to migrate, with conflicts and violence generating some 533,000 displacements, especially in Colombia, which accounts for the largest share of the total, followed by Mexico and Haiti, according to IOM figures.6UN (2025). Some 720,000 people are displaced in the Americas as a result of disasters. Retrieved January 2025 from https://news.un.org/es/story/2024/05/1529756 By 2023, the number of internally displaced persons in the Americas had risen to 6. 7 million, all of which is causing real humanitarian catastrophes.
The Impact of the USMCA
The USMCA, like its predecessor, NAFTA, has played a crucial role in shaping Mexico’s migration policies. This agreement, which prioritizes the free movement of goods and capital and the interests and profits of large transnational corporations, has conditioned Mexico to adopt migration policies that favor the control of human migration flows rather than the protection of their rights.
Despite its progressive discourse, the current administration in Mexico is a defender of capitalist interests and a status quo in which the country remains subordinate to and dependent on imperialism. It complies with the demands of the United States and keeps up a certain kind of rhetoric to respond to the grassroots sectors, adopting policies that align with the demands of the White House and the interests of large corporations. It is not, however, aligned with the working class and, much less, with the poorest migrant workers who, due to their vulnerability to the criminalization of foreigners, face even harsher conditions of exploitation.
The fact is that the USMCA reinforces capitalist policies by maintaining and expanding an economic model that favors the exploitation of migrant workers, mostly employed in the maquiladoras of northern Mexico. This agreement, in its current form, continues to promote an economic structure that prioritizes the profits of large corporations while keeping workers in vulnerable and precarious conditions.
The USMCA gives advantages to transnational companies, allowing them to operate under weak labor standards, which favors the exploitation of migrants. In the maquilas, where a large part of the employees come from migrant communities, the working conditions are usually extremely harsh: low wages, long working hours, unhealthy conditions, and lack of access to benefits, such as access to the public health system, retirement, etc. Furthermore, the treaty does not guarantee the effective protection of workers’ labor rights, which means that corporations can take advantage of this situation without facing significant consequences.
The treaty also limits the ability of the governments of subordinate countries to adequately regulate employment and decent working conditions, as these labor and economic policies in the USMCA are geared toward maximizing competitiveness rather than protecting workers’ rights. In this way, this model based on competition at the expense of the loss of labor rights deepens inequality among workers, fostering the idea that there are second-class workers and keeping them in a precarious situation, while large companies obtain enormous profits. This is in place of economic integration among equals, which could only happen on the basis of socialism, as we explain in our Declaration. Let’s confront Trump’s anti-immigrant offensive. The treaty promotes an economic model that deepens inequalities and increases Mexico’s dependence on the United States, creating economic pressure that drives many people to emigrate in search of the American dream for better working conditions.
The Migration Crisis and Its Criminalization
The phenomenon of migration has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the region. The mass deportation of migrants and the violent treatment inflicted by both Mexican and U.S. immigration authorities have exposed the precariousness and vulnerability of migrant workers. Reports of mistreatment and abuse by the National Migration Institute of Mexico (INM) and the Border Patrol, together with the lack of an effective support system for deportees, illustrate how migration has become a tool of social control and shows the contempt of governments such as Mexico and Guatemala for the lives of migrants.
This criminalization intersects with another aspect of border safety: as authorities on both sides of the border implement restrictive and severe anti-immigration policies, migrants are forced to cross this dangerous border, facing harsh and dangerous conditions. One of the main dynamics fueling this crisis is the relationship between migration and organized crime groups.
These groups, which operate both in Mexico and in other regions of Central and South America with the full consent of the authorities, have established de facto control over the migratory routes to the United States, turning migrants into victims of extortion, kidnapping and disappearances, among other crimes. Over the last few years, drug trafficking and human trafficking gangs have identified migrants as a source of income, taking advantage of their vulnerability to obtain illicit profits.
The testimonies of migrants who manage to cross the border are alarming and describe an overwhelming reality: they are handed over to criminal groups operating at the borders, who subject them to forced labor or threaten them with violence if they do not make the payments demanded. This situation is aggravated by the complicity of the authorities and armed forces on both sides of the border, who in many cases not only allow but also coordinate, guide or collaborate with these criminal groups.
Organized crime groups also benefit from anti-immigration policies and a lack of real protection for migrants, which has left a vacuum that criminal gangs have filled, ensuring their control over migratory flows. This is not an isolated phenomenon; it responds to the dynamics of international inequality that allow the interests of drug trafficking, human trafficking and migrant smuggling to flourish without major obstacles.
Likewise, the criminalization of the issue of migration, driven by the xenophobic migration policies of the U.S. and Mexico to control their borders, contributes to migrants being seen as “criminals” simply for trying to cross a border in search of better living conditions. This view is intensified when, in the collective imagination, migrants are associated with illegal activities. In the words of Donald Trump, with media stigmatization ranging from posts on social networks to films that deal with the subject in an insensitive way, among others. This stigma allows migrant workers to be treated with hostility and violence by sections of society that act as a kind of enforcement body. It allows them to be indifferent to the exploitation suffered by an impoverished international working class and also fuels division and confrontation with their fellow workers in the United States.
The Return of Donald Trump and Anti-immigrant Rhetoric
Since Trump took office as U.S. president in 2017, immigration policies have become increasingly restrictive. During his first term, severe and cruel measures were implemented that made it difficult for migrants to access their rights, seeking to discourage and criminalize migration from Latin America. For example, the “zero tolerance” policy involved separating migrant families and detaining thousands of people in inhumane conditions. According to the Humanium website, 4,300 unaccompanied minors were detained from 2017 to 2018 after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.7Cheatham, A. (2021). U.S. Detention of Child Migrants.
During the Biden administration there were almost 60,000 deportations in the first two years of his term, while in 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “carried out 225,483 deportations and returns, an increase over the figure of 170,896 during the same period last year.”8DHS (2023). DHS carries out dozens of deportation flights every week. Consulted in January 2025 at https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/04/27/dhs-lleva-cabo-docenas-de-vuelos-de-deportacion-cada-semana During the pandemic, however, there were many more deportations in accordance with Title 42, which allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants for health reasons. The previous Democratic administration of Barack Obama was also prolific in its deportation. Obama even earned the title “Deporter in Chief” by immigrant rights organizations.
Now, Donald Trump’s return to the political scene has revived anti-immigrant rhetoric that has largely shaped the immigration policies of both the United States and Mexico. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Biden administration’s “open border” has allowed the entry of alleged “terrorists” and dangerous people, purposefully ignoring the structural causes that force millions of people to migrate. In fact, the Biden administration, although more moderate in its discourse, continued to implement severe policies against migrants to divide the working class between natives and migrants, hindering labor unity.
The xenophobic and racist rhetoric of the far-right Trump has served to create a division between native workers and migrants, presenting the latter as competitors who “steal” American jobs. But as many analysts point out, this narrative is an attempt to divert attention from the true cause of the employment crisis, namely globalization in the neoliberal era and the relocation of companies to reduce labor and tax costs for big business.
Confronting Trump’s Xenophobic and Racist Policies
It is urgent to fight the militarization of our borders, where the hope and the dignity of those seeking a better life is confronted with state-administered violence. We must demand full rights for migrants: to housing, health care, education, food, decent work, equal rights, even to living without fear, without walls or passports or borders to divide us.
We demand the abolition of the agencies that keep them in subhuman conditions and terrorize and abuse them, such as ICE in the United States and the National Migration Institute (INM) in Mexico.
The solidarity of our class will be our bridge, the bond that unites south and north, in a common struggle for the rights of all, uniting all the voices of social organizations, unions, activists, and human rights defenders. Let us raise our voices against criminalization and deportations. Let us demand that the military return to their barracks and that the resources allocated to them be used to guarantee human rights to all.
For open borders that are free, safe, and without fear or repression, because we all have the right to live well and in peace. For a world where wealth is not used to line the pockets of the few, a world that can become a reality with our independent, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist organization, which demands fewer working hours, to have time for rest, for study, for personal and community care. All this is within our reach if we unite the working class and poor peasants, united and strong, and build a socialist future where every human being can choose their destiny without being oppressed by the frontiers of capitalism in a world where life flourishes.
Free passage without borders! Unity of workers on both sides of the borders, because no human being is illegal!
Originally published in Spanish on January 19, 2025 in La Izquierda Diario MX
Translated by Kimberly Ann