What is the Root Causes strategy?

More people than ever need refuge. The government’s Root Causes Strategy aims to address the conditions that force people to migrate.

Driven from their homes by a multitude of factors, including gang violence, persecution, poverty, corruption, and climate change, many of our neighbors in northern Central America are fleeing to the United States. At our southwest border, a series of inhumane and ever-changing immigration policies undermine their right to seek asylum.

To mitigate this humanitarian crisis while balancing domestic demands for border security, the government rolled out the Root Causes Strategy in the Northern Triangle in 2021. By investing in efforts to improve the political, economic and security situations in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the government hopes to address the root causes of migration, including poverty, crime and corruption, that drive people to migrate north. It is a long-term strategy aimed at preventing people from needing asylum in the United States in the first place.

The strategy addresses multiple causes of displacement, including flight from persecution and survival migration.

Refugees, people with a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, nationality, political opinions, membership of a particular social group or religion, are protected by the 1951 Refugee Convention. Survival migration, which describes people who leave their homeland because of deep economic insecurity, famine, war and general violence, is not as well protected by international and domestic law.

The strategy consists of five pillars, each aimed at reducing different ‘push’ factors that encourage people to leave the Northern Triangle.

“Push” factors are circumstances in a person’s home country, such as war or famine, that motivate them to leave. “Pull” factors are circumstances in a foreign country, such as employment opportunities or low crime rates, that encourage people to immigrate.

The five pillars of the Root Causes Strategy are:

• Strengthen economic opportunities: Through economic development programs, the Administration seeks to make it financially feasible to remain in the Northern Triangle. Under this pillar, the Strategy finances loans to small and medium-sized businesses, finances career training programs, and attracts private investors to the region.
• Promote democracy: This pillar works to foster political trust and ensure that ordinary people have a say in decision-making processes. For example, to combat corruption and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has trained 3,000 justice sector staff in the Northern Triangle.
• Protect human rights: This pillar ensures that the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala do not persecute their people and protect them from serious harm and human rights violations.
• Combat gang violence and criminal networks: Until recently, El Salvador and Honduras had among the highest per capita murder rates in the world. In El Salvador, controversial anti-gang measures have led to a dramatic drop in the murder rate, although criminal networks remain strong in both countries. To curb their presence, the US is training local police and security forces. Given that security forces in the Northern Triangle have been responsible for human rights violations, anti-militarism advocates have criticized the strategy for fostering a repressive climate rife with impunity.
• Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence: Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) describes abuses of power, often perpetrated because of a person’s gender identity or sexuality. Patriarchal violence remains a global problem, with nowhere completely safe for women and queer people. But crises including armed conflict and climate change exacerbate SGBV. Women and LGBTQ+ people from the Northern Triangle are coming to the United States hoping to find some semblance of safety from their abusers. By working toward gender equality in the region, the government hopes to make the Northern Triangle a safer place for women and LGBTQ+ people.

Who funds the Root Causes Strategy? The majority of funding for the Root Causes Strategy comes from private corporate partners. While the government is on track to commit a total of $4 billion in U.S. aid funding, the private sector has pledged at least $5.2 billion. Companies such as Nespresso, Pepsi and Mastercard are investors in the project.

The strategy’s inclusion of private companies as key partners has drawn criticism from human rights activists. They point out that the energy sector and agribusiness have participated in the displacement of indigenous, Afro-Latino and rural communities from their ancestral lands, raising concerns that the Root Causes Strategy could fuel displacement rather than seal it off. Private companies are accountable to their shareholders and can drive the implementation of policies that prioritize the national “investment climate” over the protection of human rights.

Is the Root Causes Strategy successful? Safe and healthy democracies are not born overnight. The Root Causes Strategy is not an instant gratification policy: real successes take years to blossom.

While all border detentions have dropped dramatically over the past six months, the need for refuge has not. In 2021, just over 700,000 people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala were intercepted by the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2023, that number dropped to just over 500,000. While policy changes within the Northern Triangle are likely a contributing factor, the decline in the number of people crossing the border without inspection is more likely the result of increasingly restrictive U.S. immigration policies, including restrictions on asylum seekers.

While the Root Causes approach is valuable as a mechanism to prevent forced displacement, it is not a substitute for the right to seek asylum. Even in well-functioning, stable democracies, there are gaps in state protection, where people are persecuted by their governments. We remain obligated to allow them to seek safe haven.

Founded in 1911, USCRI is a non-governmental, non-profit international organization dedicated to helping refugees and immigrants transition to a life of dignity.

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