Portside

U.S. assistance has caused great harm in Central America. But Trump’s decision to cut it off is nothing to celebrate. He seeks to deprive Central Americans of all options, suffocating legal pathways to migration, while cutting much needed resources.

Now two Guatemalan children have died under Border Patrol custody. The agency’s role in Latin American oppression has a long history. It has has operated with near impunity, becoming arguably the most politicized branch of federal law enforcement...

“The extreme violence, environmental disasters and grinding poverty that drive people from places like Guatemala, Honduras and Afghanistan are largely the result of global phenomena like colonialism, climate change and trade.”

Mass migration is the result of decades of political, economic and military intervention by the United States and of negligence, coups d’état, insecurity, corruption, and impunity by Central America’s governments.

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Those seeking asylum today inherited a series of crises that drove them to the border.

Welcoming Central American refugees is the smart thing to do. In time they will contribute much to our society. It’s the right thing to do. It gives us a chance to reckon with the history that brought them here and begin to take responsibility for it

I know from experience that the Trump-sanctioned brutality at the US border with Mexico will scar its child victims for life. What is happening today is as evil and criminal as what happened to me and my siblings as children in Nazi Europe.

The Trump administration’s depiction of Central American gang members conveniently overlooks the United States’ role in perpetuating gang violence at home and abroad.