The majority of unaccompanied children and families arriving on the United States’ southern border come from a region of Central America known as the Northern Triangle, where high rates of violence and homicide have prevailed in recent years and economic opportunity is increasingly hard to come by.

Join us for a conversation on the economic underpinnings of this Northern Triangle region as we examine factors that have contributed to the surge in northern migration.

In particular we will focus on economic development issues concerning the nearly decade-old Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Some fear that CAFTA-DR has lowered living standards and labor protection in the region, cost jobs, harmed rural communities, and promoted privatization and deregulation of fundamental public services in signatory states. The panel will discuss CAFTA-DR, its labor law rights and enforcement, and the importance of including labor protections in future free trade agreements.

Panelists include:

• Tefere Gebre, Executive Vice President of AFL-CIO
• Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
• Ben Beachy, Research Director at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
• Walker Grooms, National Grassroots Organizer at Witness for Peace

If you have any questions or would like additional information on the event, please contact Jenny Perrino at jenny.perrino@mail.house.gov or 225-4146.