What Happened
The Mexican and U.S. foreign development agencies will work on a new "Planting Opportunities" initiative to promote economic development in Northern Triangle countries — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — to curb migration patterns, Reuters reported Dec. 1.

Why It Matters
The United States seems to be returning to its previous strategy of slowing Central American migration by addressing its root causes in the Northern Triangle. The program’s success will likely depend on the strength of its funding and the level of domestic graft and corruption in Northern Triangle countries. If these factors prove surmountable, the initiative’s successful alleviation of the root causes of migration will likely stem long-term Central American immigration into the United States. But migrants already gathered in Mexico will likely continue immigrating into the United States in the short term regardless of the initiative’s success.

Background
The initiative will begin in Honduras to teach job skills to over 500,000 at-risk youth. In 2019, 28% of the Honduran youth population was not employed or pursuing education. Over the last fiscal year, U.S. authorities detained over 1.7 million people at the U.S. southern border, the majority of whom were Central American.