Kinder, gentler US immigration laws

Americans like to think that they live in the freest country in the world, but many have had a shock when they find out that their government has something to say about who they fall in love with in and whether they are going to be allowed to live happily ever after. Well, not so much who, but whether the American will be allowed to live with their spouse in their own country of birth, in the land of opportunity among their friends and family.

I've heard from hundreds of Americans married to Hondurans who families are being or have been torn apart because of US immigration laws. Their choice is to leave the only country they've known in their life or to split up their families and let their children grow up without a father for years while the spouse goes through the lengthy immigration process. In the case of Honduran spouses, that could mean living a life of extreme hardship by chosing to come to a country where there are no jobs, where there is no decent healthcare in many areas, where it will probably be impossible for them to earn enough to pay for even adequate schooling for their (US citizen!) children, and where the crime situation is frightening. Is that what the US government wants for its citizens, its children?

And before you hard-hearted people say it's their own fault and they should have known, I propose that a lot of people did not know the immigration laws! Maybe not so much now, with the stink there has been about immigration in the past few years, but before that, yes, I think most people only had a very vague idea of what the US immigration laws were. I think that many thought they could marry whoever they fell in love with and if they weren't US citizens, they could just apply for them and boom! Their spouses would become citizens, too.

Many American spouses had the shock of their lives to find out that their loved one had to leave the country to apply for a visa, and sometimes, depending upon their status, had to stay away for 3 years even if they entered the US legally or even up to 10 years if they didn't.

The Obama Administration has now proposed a “tweak” in the immigration law. The New York Times reports, “Although the regulatory tweak appears small, lawyers said it would mean that many Americans will no longer be separated for months or years from family members pursuing legal residency.”

I think this is a good thing. Immigrants who are married to US citizens should be given priority and US citizens shouldn't be put through the hardship of being separated from their spouse for many years. As one interviewee put it, “We can’t survive without each other,” she said. “I should have a right as a U.S. citizen to live in my country with my husband.”

I hope this helps many of the people who have written to me with sad stories.

Big brother comes to Honduras

Update, January 9: President Lobo has just announced that he is suspending the sanction of this decree pending review. No mention yet what this will mean for the new migration measures.

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Just yesterday, we surprisingly learned that another 'travel tax' was approved on December 14, 2011 (in the middle of the night, says El Heraldo), adding $17 to the cost of a airline ticket for each international passenger on entry and exit, for a total of $34. The tax is to provide for new migratory control security measures which will be put into force not only at the airports but at all immigration checkpoints in Honduras.

Last month, a law was passed by congress to increase Honduras' exit fee from US $37.80 (for foreigners) to US $60.20 but ultimately was vetoed by President Lobo because of public outcry even though it was Lobo's own decree. It was felt that the tax would have a detrimental effect on tourism and voluntourism, already suffering from the crime situation in Honduras, especially so since Honduras' tax is not hidden in the airline ticket price as many countries are, but must be paid separately at a bank in advance or by standing in line at the airport which tends to leave a bad taste in some visitors' mouths. So now instead of the $22 increase, air travelers will be facing a $34 increase in their travel costs. I don't know if the original plan was to increase air travel taxes by a total of $56 to $94 (!) or if the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing.

The new tax is in addition to the security tax law [in English] passed in September last year which primarily affects businesses and citizens and residents of Honduras who have bank accounts or credit cards. This law, which was initially expected to generate some L.4.5 billion (about US $237 million) over 5 years for strengthening the justice system and crime prevention, still hasn't gone into effect. Some people, like President of Congress Juan Orlando Hernández, are asking why implementation has been delayed.

Honduras has contracted for 10 years with a US company called Securiport whose president is Enrique Segura, and in which a majority ownership is held by the ENSE Group. This was another one of those "emergency" situations where public bidding wasn't required and apparently not even the congress was really aware of it. Two of the three congressmen contacted by Proceso Digital didn't know anything about the new tax and the third voted against it.

Secretary of the Interior and Population Áfrico Madrid said that the content and details of the contract can't be given to the public because he could incur civil, administrative, and criminal penalties since this is a matter of security. Reporters were only asking why there wasn't a public bidding process, not details of the company's patented technology, so I think that Madrid is really stretching this secrecy thing to avoid being transparent, as usual. Passing the law in the middle of the night when many congressmen were not there and keeping it under wraps for three weeks also makes it look like there is something fishy going on.

As part of the deal, Securiport will make an investment of US 31.6 million in equipment. Translated from La Tribuna, under Decreto 252-2011, Securiport will ...

"provide and install in all of the windows of migration attention, a system of control of the entrance and exit of the persons to and from the national territory, which includes the scanning equipment, computers, programs, training of migration personnel, adaptation of installations and server requirements for the digitalization of the images, archives, obtaining and comparing of fingerprints of said persons. This also includes the installation of equipment and programs based on the same technology to control the access of persons to the zones reserved to the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería. The technology referred to is supported in the employment of ultrasound scanner developed by Ultra Scan Corporation, strategic partner of Securiport."

The decree refers to Executive Accord 29-2011 dated March 24, 2011, in which the Secretary of the Interior was authorized by the President to directly contract with Securiport for the operation of system of control of the entrance and exit of persons to or from the national territory at any of the international airports and the 22 land and maritime frontier points of the country. It also states that Securiport will be paid directly by the airlines collecting the taxes. That was a wise move by Securiport or they might have ended up like the company who formerly provided the gun registration technology to Honduras.

Secretary Madrid stated, "The charge of US $34 will serve to avoid the free circulation and entrance of persons related to organized crime, narcotraffickers, assassins, kidnappers, money launderers, and arms traffickers that have utilized the country as a center of operations due to the lack of a modern and scientific system of migration control". He went on to say that the tax would be charged only to foreign citizens. Madrid is also quoted as saying, "we don't have the economic resources so someone has to pay for it".

El Heraldo unfortunately published an article quoting at length the President of CANATURH (tourism business association) Epaminondas Marinakys who apparently did not have his facts straight. He says that all who enter Honduras will pay the $17 tax on entry and exit, that he supposed that bus passengers would be off-loaded to pay at the frontier, and even that the one million annual cruise ship passengers would pay $34 for the privilege of setting foot on Honduras soil for a day. Either Madrid is lying or Marinakys did not actually see the decree and was only supposing based on what he had heard.

Better migration controls (if they can be enforced) is probably a good thing. Based on the number of people who have been captured with 10s of thousands of dollars strapped to their bodies or hundreds of thousands in their suitcases, there have probably been lots more who got away. There is a lot of corruption in Immigration, where many agents seem to make up their own rules as they go, and where official 90-day visa renewal stamps in passports can be bought for varying prices — there is legally no such thing as a 90-day visa renewal. I've heard from various people that in San Pedro a stamp allowing someone to stay an additional 90 days costs L.2,000 (about US $105) and in Roatan about US $150. Not all immigration agents are corrupt, but many are, especially those in the outlying areas. A bigger issue than perpetual tourists are the wanted criminals who are able to get away even when there is a migratory alert out for them.

It sounds like those who have been living 'undocumented' in Honduras might need to get their paperwork in order. Or maybe not. You never know how these things will work out in practice in Honduras. Where there's a will (bribe), there's a way. If only some of the brain power used by corruptos in thinking of ways to lie, cheat, and steal was put to use pulling Honduras out of poverty instead!

On a final ironic note, with these new measures, Honduras may be protected from its criminal visitors, but who is going to protect its visitors from Honduras?

What has been going on in Honduras?

President Pepe Lobo, Esdras Amado López, 'journalist',
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

The following are some tidbits about what has been going on in Honduras lately to catch you up-to-date after my much needed news break. All of the links are to articles in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.

Deja vu all over again

Talk about rejoining Hugo Chávez's ALBA and Petrocaribe has picked up again after Honduras failed to qualify for US Millennium Challenge program funds because of corruption, human rights violations, and other issues — which resulted in an angry response from President Lobo, just as back in 2008 when Zelaya said he wasn't getting enough cash from the US and needed to look elsewhere. Even more worrisome, Chávez is getting a direct foothold in Honduras territory, specifically the Bajo Aguán, noted for militant campesino groups and Venezuelan narco plane landings [article in English], a place ripe for Chávez propagandizing.

As Proceso Digital so delicately put it, "These funds, since they are placed in trust, beyond the strict budgetary control, are coveted by rulers not inclined to fiscal rigor." Evidence of the lack of transparency is the fact that though these funds were received in 2008-2009, the public was just informed for the first time on January 5, 2012, how much money was available from Petrocaribe (originally US $183 million and now zero), when it was spent (the last of it 8 months ago), where it went, and what it was actually spent on (we still don't know).

In a press conference apparently impulsed by rumors of a 'missing' US $150 million, Minister of Finance William Chong Wong and President of the Central Bank Maria Elena Mondragón went to great pains to differentiate between Petrocaribe funds (which have to be paid back) and ALBA funds (which don't), but were only very vague about when and where the ALBA funds were spent, of which US $49.8 million supposedly remain. The ALBA funds were to be used for such things as providing housing for the poor, so you might wonder why it has been sitting in a bank account since 2008. The first article states that Honduras indebted itself with Venezuela for more than US $263 million, but second states that the current remaining amount is US $200 million. Chong Wong said that La ENEE authorities are responsible for detailing where its US $51 million was spent (since there is some speculation about misuse of funds there, too).

Also interesting is that in May 2011 during one of the many pushes for rejoining Petrocaribe [Blogicito article in English], the media was led to believe that the 2008 Petrocaribe funds were still in the bank. Yesterday in the press conference apparently prompted to dispel rumors, the public found out that the funds had actually been spent in 2009, 2010 and April 2011. Very deceitful of the government.

Pepe says Petrocaribe is a go. He likes the "flexibility" of Petrocaribe and the fact that it doesn't come with any conditions on what they do with the money or anti-corruption measures like the US money does — which he resents greatly. Putting the country into further long term debt for current consumables is not an issue for him, neither is reducing the over-inflated government payroll budget. Honduran politicians would sell Honduras to the devil himself if it meant more money in their pockets and/or more political currency for their party (more bonos — cash bonuses to give out).

Selling the farm to buy the pig

The finances of Honduras are in dire straits. The government is unable to meet the ever-growing, exaggerated government payroll costs, and unwilling to cut expenses in this "government of austerity", which passes out jobs and cash bonos like money comes from a bottomless barrel. By one estimation, Lobo is desperate for funds because he has a failed government which has increased the bureaucracy and national budget while giving out Bonos Diez Mil without any idea of how to pay for any of it. In order to shore up the barrel before the Venezuelan funds come rolling in, Honduras will be holding two large auctions of public property in 2012. I'll bet you a dollar that we will never know who bought what or how much they paid for it!

Striking teachers

Teachers' unions claim that 50% of teachers did not receive their vacation pay in December and they are already planning strikes in 2012. The Honduran public school year runs February through November and supposedly includes 200 days of classes, though most schools have not reached 200 days of classes yet in this century. Last year, some schools had as little as 80 days of classes due to teacher strikes. Even worse for the future of Honduras, high school graduates can become teachers with no university training at all. More deja vu.

Emergency!

In less than two years of his administration, President Pepe Lobo has declared 17 state of emergencies, on average an emergency every 38 days. Decoded, "state of emergency" often has nothing to do with true emergencies. It means that the government can make direct purchases and grant abusive contracts to friends, family members, convicted felons, and others without those pesky requirements to have an open bidding and qualification process as required under the Law of State Contraction. One of those recent emergencies resulted in a 16-year 100 megawatt multimillion dollar contract for electrical energy with a company (Westport Finance) who has no experience in the area of energy and had revenues in 2010 of about US $96,000 and two employees.

A 16-year emergency? Only in Honduras. "It stinks of corruption," said one congressman. Honduras government officials had the nerve to lead people to believe the contract was with the well-known Finland company Wartsilla, when in fact it was not. The contract itself was not even provided to congressmen until the night of the vote. So much for transparency.

Mañana

The total of these emergency contracts in the past two years is said to be L.5.8 billion. Repeated complaints of fraud and corruption from citizens, congressmen, and other organizations have had no effect. Now the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Henry Salgado (who I'm not sure has ever won a case) announced that they will be investigating whether there are any penal responsibilities related to these emergency contracts.

He also promises action in the ENP (port authority) corruption and the L. 80 billion fraud and corruption in INPREMA (teachers' retirement fund) cases within the next three weeks. Check out the reader comments on this article — no, don't bother. I'll save you the time and translate for you, too: "jajaja" (hahaha). A separate article reports that the Anti-Corruption unit has a backlog of 4,000 cases and between 10-15 attorneys to handle them! Pure show and more deja vu.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate in Honduras is somewhere around 30-40% according to various reports. However, coffee plantations, which need around a million seasonal workers, are required to fill about 100,000 of the jobs with Nicaraguans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorans because, they say, Hondurans do not want the work. Sadly, they also say that foreigners are better workers. Though this type of worker is paid by the piece (sack of coffee beans), they say that an average worker makes more than minimum wage (about L.250 per day vs. L. 183 per day) and a good worker makes almost twice that. So they say anyway. Some readers have different opinions.

Minimum wage

Negotiations between business and labor have not resulted in an agreement on the new minimum wage and it is likely that President Lobo will end up setting the 2012 minimum wage as required by law. Hopefully he won't wait until November like he did in 2010. This is a really complicated issue. While we always focus on the poverty in Honduras, the Honduran minimum wage is higher than all of the competing countries. Nicaragua and Guatemala in particular will be watching this issue and waiting for more businesses to pack up and move to their countries. (Click cartoon to enlarge.)

Taking security into the neighborhoods' hands

In a program called Barrios Seguros (secure neighborhoods), the municipality of Tegucigalpa has been allowing neighborhoods to close various street entrances, leaving one or more secured or controlled entrance in an effort to slow crime. San Pedro Sula has been allowing something similar. A group of anti-corruption attorneys has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court saying this conflicts with the free circulation right provided by the constitution and laws which proclaim streets to be public property.

The Mayor of Tegucigalpa and presidential candidate, Ricardo Álvarez, says the measure is to protect lives in this wave of violent crime and that is what should be considered first. Well, why not? Honduran laws are made to be broken, though lately it appears that Honduran laws are made to protect the guilty, never the innocent.

Purification

The new commission, Dirección Nacional de Investigación y Evaluación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP), which was supposed to be the answer to our prayers about purifying the police department has done nothing except emit statements about how it isn't their job, they don't have the budget, and the law doesn't permit them to intervene anyway. It seems that in congress' rush to pass this law and appoint the commissioners in a big show to appease the public, they failed to note that the purpose of the new commission conflicts with the current internal police law as well as the constitution.

In a Diario Tiempo editorial, they wrote that those with experience knew since the beginning that the new commission would not function and that there has been no evidence of political will to intervene, purify, or restructure the justice system (police, military, judicial, and prosecutors), much less real capacity to do so. "The gangrene in the police organization, for example, starts at the base, in the police academy, and from there on up, no doubt induced at the top."

However, Pompeyo Bonilla, Minister of Security, announced this week (with no details) the upcoming separation of some unspecified number of police from the basic level to the highest levels in "important positions". Yesterday it was announced that 50 police agents and 25 officials would be fired by next week and some additional number would be rotated. That number was increased to "up to 100" today and then later an announcement was made that 52 police had been separated, including one commissioner general, two commissioners, and one sub-commissioner, and that another separation would occur soon.

Names were not given by police spokesman Ivan Mejía, who said that the law prohibits it and that the affected police could sue the state for damages, even though names have been given in the past. (I'll be watching for a leak.) These police were separated for grave faults (misconduct?), but the Minister of Security is taking no legal action against them as that is the duty of other organizations to investigate and make charges. Mejía refused to give more information despite prodding from the media. He did report that some of the fired personnel had 25-30 years with the police department.

In another blow (no pun intended), 28 new police cadets (5% of the total) were fired after their drug tests came back positive. Apparently the government is taking the position that new hires can be tested for drugs but current employees can not be forced to be tested. That isn't the way I read the law but I'm not an attorney. If that is what the law actually says, then of course it should be changed so that the public is protected, not drug-consuming police officers.

Honduras' Iron Lady

Julieta Castellanos, Rector of UNAH and mother of one of the university students murdered by police in October [article in English], proclaimed the actions as a "fictitious purification" done to calm the public and evade real purification. Castellanos says that we need information about whether these are real firings, suspensions, or rotations, and whether these people are still receiving salary. In a strong statement in which she used words like deplorable, grotesque, and abominable, she said that the organization has had three months to destroy the evidence of police corruption, and she lamented the fact that honest police have not come forward out of fear or intimidation.

Asked by La Tribuna whether she fears being assassinated because of her constant denuncias against the police, she stated that she isn't looking for that, but that she does what she has to do. "If something happens to me it is the fault of the police, primarily señor Ramírez del Cid [National Director of Police], because there is no one more interested in something happening to me.... and no one more knowledgeable about corruption in the police since he was the former head of Intelligence."

She also pointed out that it should be easy to prove corruption of police agents and officials who live well beyond what their police salaries could provide, like with three US $25-30,000 cars and houses in wealthy areas. She also reported that as late as a few days ago, police were out in police vehicles in Tegucigalpa extorting businesses. One of those businessmen was expected to pay L. 350,000 because he was an undocumented foreigner, but when they took him to the police post to pay, he only had L.38,000.

New justice system

President Lobo announced Thursday that he will be sending a new packet of security measures to the congress soon to "make changes in the structure of the Judicial Power". I hope he reads the constitution first.

Washington Post is soooo mean

A Washington Post article, which was only the latest of many articles in the international media about Honduras' severe crime and criminal police problems, resulted in an uproar from some in Honduras about how unfair it was to write about the situation and possibly scare off tourists and volunteers.

Marco Cáceres of Honduras Weekly [article in English] called the complaints a cop-out.

"The negative publicity for Honduras worries me too, but honestly... not nearly as much as attempts by people within the Honduran government and business community to downplay the strife. The simple fact of the matter is: It is what it is; the numbers do not lie (at least not too much)."

False pride is a big factor in Honduras' failure to take action against corruption and impunity. As long as those in power are more worried about covering up the embarrassment to the country than taking action to do the right thing, nothing will change.

Stupid Capitalinos

In yet another vague and demeaning comment intended to divide the population, not reconcile it as he incessantly claims, yesterday in Comayagua, President Lobo said how good it was to be there talking about production because in Tegucigalpa (the capital), they only talk stupidities. Maybe he has a point, but by not naming names, he just insulted some 1.5 million plus Hondurans.


Phew! And that was primarily from the last 2-3 days of news. Can you see why I needed a break from the news? If you don't read or watch the Honduran news, I hope that you found this helpful.