Mark — you write:
This suggests that the White House will try to ameliorate the situation in a way that avoids the unacceptable option of actually enforcing immigration law. That suggests a supply-side solution — pressuring Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to keep people from leaving and pressuring the Mexicans to do more to stop them from transiting their country. But this won’t work; the governments there have neither the incentive nor the capacity to do our job of immigration control for us.
You know orders of magnitude more than I do about immigration so I’m willing to defer to your judgment. Still, I have question. Why is this situation in Mexico’s interest? I understand that they have a vested interest in expanding illegal immigration from Mexico. But how do they benefit from letting these buses cross their territory? If I were a cynical Mexican official, the current crisis would concern me greatly because it has the potential to fuel a major backlash against any immigration across our southern border. The crisis is certainly undermining the case for amnesty and comprehensive immigration reform. If the Mexican government sees these things as in their interest, shouldn’t they do what they can to defuse this situation?