It's the War on Drugs, waged by America, and it's been going on for decades.

So your country has to be in the middle of a civil war for you to be a refugee? Well damn, let's go tell all the people in Honduras and El Salvador that they can't leave and seek asylum because they're not allowed to be refugees.

Most latin immigrants are economic refugees and those escaping local gangland violence rather than regime violence.

"Economic refugee"? This is some way to make a word lose its meaning. At this point any immigrant would become a refugee.

"A refugee is a person who is outside their home country because they have suffered (or feared) persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion; because they are a member of a persecuted social category of persons; or because they are fleeing a war." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee

Sigh: According to the researchers, a lack of protection of migrants in the region was based on a "false distinction" between a forced and an economic migrant, instead of focusing on the real and urgent needs some of these migrants have. The report suggested that a better term would be "forced humanitarian migrants", who moved for the purpose of their and their dependents' basic survival. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee#Economic_migrants