Sunday, June 22, 2014

Our Manufactured Immigration Crisis

The promise of amnesty has caused many Central American families to send their children, unaccompanied, to the US southern border.  Ross Douthat, the New York Times's only conservative columnist, at least gives a nod to those who have seen the so-called crisis of the status of illegals as one in our own mind. See his Open Invitation

Our punitive policy against Honduras a few years ago probably contributed to this mess.  When  the entire Honduran political class turned against President Manuel Zelaya and removed him from office, we hammered Honduras, cutting off trade and aid.  We drove the poorest country in the hemisphere even further into the ground. 

Many have noted the terrible gang problem in Central America and how this has spurred immigration. This was caused in large degree by immigrants to the US who became gang members in American prisons.  These gang members came north legally through our temporary refugee policies.   MS-13 and other notorious gangs were born in the U.S.A. 

We discount how difficult it is for a deracinated immigrant to make a new life for himself in the U.S.  Based on our national mythology, we think it all ends happily ever after.  But sometimes it goes the path of the Mara Salvatrucha. 

 

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