WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. bishops’ International Justice and Peace committee urged Secretary of State John Kerry to utilize U.S. foreign policy to address the “root causes” of child migration from Central America.

“The crisis on our borders will not be minimally resolved until drugs and arms flows, harmful trade provisions and other critical economic policies that contribute to violence are addressed and rectified,” Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, said in a July 24 letter to Secretary Kerry.

Bishop Pates wrote the letter after his “solidarity trip” to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — the origin countries of many of the 57,000 unaccompanied child migrants coming to the U.S. and tens of thousands of migrating adults with children.

He outlined the root causes of migration there — horrific violence at home, human and drug trafficking and lack of economic opportunities— and asked Kerry to focus more on U.S. investment in education and jobs than on military assistance in order to spur a “long-term resolution” to the problems.

The number of unaccompanied child migrants to the U.S. has doubled each year since 2011. An estimated 90,000 will have come by the end of this fiscal year, and in 2015, the number is expected to rise to 145,000, according to U.S. officials.

Bishop Pates blamed the exploitative practices of multinational mining corporations, the overmilitarization of U.S. assistance and current trade agreements for the economic and social hardships that are driving migration.

“My brother bishops in Central America have urged us to encourage alternatives to militarization of U.S. assistance and instead emphasize economic opportunity,” he wrote. “The United States must recognize our own contributions to this crisis and support more effective programs that reduce drug usage here at home.”

Current trade policies have benefitted U.S. corporations, which receive significant subsidies and other protections from the federal government, Bishop Pates said. They “have been able to export corn and other agricultural products to Central America, driving down local prices for these products and forcing rural families off their lands.”

U.S. and Canadian mining companies are harming the environment and public health in those countries, forcibly silencing opposition to their practices, he added.

“We heard powerful testimonies, by civil and Church leaders, of brutality and oppression, including torture and murder. Community leaders and representatives of indigenous communities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, who resisted the unregulated expansion of mining activities in their native lands, have been targeted,” Bishop Pates wrote.

The U.S. government must ensure that companies abide by the same “standards of care for human life and ecology” abroad, as they do in the U.S. and Canada, he said.

All these problems are behind the increase in migration, the bishop said, emphasizing that the U.S. must address them to solve the current crisis in the long term.

“We must recognize that there are correlations between these harmful trade practices and the deplorable conditions that lead to poverty, increased unemployment (especially among the young), violence, trafficking and the resultant push for migration.”