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“Historically and currently, the United States does not recognize Central American asylum claims,” said Elizabeth Kennedy, a Fulbright scholar working with returned child migrants in El Salvador.

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But such violence may not be a legal foundation for asylum in the United States. “Who is capable of persecution [under US asylum law]? Historically, that had to be a state actor or very powerful non-state actor with direct political purpose,” Kennedy said from El Salvador.

“The problem here is that the main persecutors are gangs, cartels, and other organized criminal actors,” she said.

In US asylum hearings, judges will typically try to make the case that Central American applicants are victims of random violence or targets of local criminal groups, and therefore don’t qualify for asylum based on US law, according to Kennedy.

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An unsuccessful asylum petition can have deadly consequences. Kennedy, the Fulbright scholar based in El Salvador, said she encounters about one newspaper story each month in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras about a US deportee who has been murdered.

”It might be higher,” she said, since many families are reluctant to publicly acknowledge that a member of their family has been deported.

Perhaps a better model for US asylum policy, Kennedy says, is the 1984 Cartagena declaration, published in the midst of the Central American civil wars at a summit of migration experts from across the Americas. The declaration defines refugees more broadly and mandates a broader set of responsibilities toward them from receiving governments.

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“The reality of refugee and asylum policy in our world today is that the poorest nations are receiving the majority of asylum seekers and refugees,” Kennedy said. “Wealthy nations have been very restrictive in who they admit and who they allow to get asylum, and that is a great injustice, because often times their policies are contributing to the things that create refugees.”

That’s the deeper solution to asylum problems, attacking forced migration at the source. In the Central American case, a principal culprit is the US drug war, according to Kennedy, which fuels violence in countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico in order to meet US demand for recreational drugs.

“What would prevent people from producing drugs and working to supply them is going to be the same as what would prevent people from joining gangs and organized crime, and that’s genuine economic and social development,” Kennedy said.

“The United States does not have a good track record of investing in that.”

EXTENSA CITA EN ARTÍCULO DE ALERNET, POR CHRIS LEWIS, EL 14 DE AGOSTO

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“Historicamente y en la actualidad, los Estados Unidos no reconoce las solicitudes de asilo de América Central” dijo Elizabeth Kennedy, una becaria Fulbright que trabaja con niños retornados migrantes en El Salvador.

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Pero este tipo de violencia no ser un fundamento legal para asilo en los Estados Unidos. “Quién puede ser capaz de ejercer persecución (bajo las leyes del asilo en los Estados Unidos)? Históricamente, tenía que ser un actor estatal o no estatal muy poderoso con un propósito político directo”, dijo Kennedy desde El Salvador.

“El problema aquí es que la principal persecución la ejerce las pandillas, carteles y otros actores de crimen organizado” dijo ella.

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Una petición de asilo sin éxito puede tener consecuencias mortales. Kennedy, becaria Fulbright que se encuentra en El Salvador, dijo que encuentra  la historia, en algún periódico, cada mes en El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras sobre un deportado desde Estados Unidos que ha sido asesinado.

“Esto puede ser que sea más alto”, dijo, ya que muchas familias se resisten a reconocer públicamente que un miembro de su familia ha sido deportado.

Tal vez un mejor modelo para la política de asilo de Estados Unidos, menciona Kennedy, es la declaración de Cartagena de 1984, publicada en medio de las guerras civiles de Centroamérica, en una cumbre de expertos en migración de todas las Américas. La declaración define a los refugiados de manera más amplia y exige un conjunto más amplio de responsabilidades hacia ellos desde los gobiernos que reciben

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