US is running more than 30,000 radio ads a month to deter migration from Central America

The ad campaign is designed to combat a range of factors driving migrants to the US-Mexico border, including misinformation spread by smugglers and the widespread belief among migrants that border enforcement has been relaxed under the Biden administration. Over recent weeks, several senior administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have visited the region in an attempt to instill hope and discourage migration to the US southern border.

The State Department is bolstering that message by running thousands of ads locally, an effort that’s slightly grown since the spring, when the administration was disseminating 28,000 ads a month. But it’s unclear how effective they’ve been.

“The evidence tells us if you want to change the narrative, it has to come from people’s trusted networks. That’s the bottom line,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute. “I can understand wanting to do anything to change the narrative, change the balance of people leaving, but this seems to be a stretch.”

Radio is the medium most people outside of big cities use, Selee noted, but messages are less likely to resonate if not delivered by people they know, like religious leaders or public figures who are respected in the region.