Just love it when we worry about other people and not worry about our homeless. The homeless don't have land like Guatemalans do where they can plant something to eat.The other thing is that it's an irony that Guatemala is claiming small Belize when the majority of its people want to leave all the while telling them to go back to Africa.
12
The sad part of this whole episode lies in the opportunity costs; of what could be. At the same time that we are engaging the Chinese on trade, Central and South America provide a potential way of dealing with China. WE should be exploring ways of diversifying our risk, using that trade war to explore ways of moving production out of China and into Central and South America.
Costs are rising in China. At some point, there is a tipping point where other options should be explored. Make no mistake, that is already happening, as production is moving to neighboring countries like Cambodia and Myanmar. But look at Central America as not too dissimilar from China, or Cambodia or Myanmar.
Are the barriers to such a move daunting? Of course. I get it that currently China has the economies of scale that make such a move problematical in the short run. But those economies of scale can change.
I also know that as I write this, somebody in the State Department will pull out just such a study (Cohen's "Marshall Plan"), so I do not pretend that this is news. But the synergies are there; we just need the political and economic will to make it happen, that is all.
3
"Morales keeps Trump happy in various ways."
Dictators abroad know how to influence American policy. It's all about keeping Trump happy.
Morales can mistreat his fellow Guatemalans as long as he keeps Trump happy.
MBS of Saudi Arabia was allegedly involved in the murder of a journalist who worked for The Washington Post and got away with it, thanks to Trump's (and his son-in-law's) close relationship with MBS and Saudi money. (See "Trump, Saudis, money … and a murder. We need a new Congress to find out what really happened" in philly.com)
There are no U.S. values any more. Only Trump's values. Sadly.
9
If Americans didn't buy the cocaine flooding in from Mexico and Central America, perhaps those nations could recover somewhat from the horrendous human cost of drug trafficking . Yet nothing I have read ever points to "our" culpability in this problem. Don't we bear some responsibility for this disaster...and what should be our response?
7
Mr. Cohen has written a powerful, but deeply discouraging, column. We must restore at least a modicum of compassion, understanding and justice in our national leadership.
5
My family has been in the United States since 1640. My ancestors served in every single war this country fought, up through World War II, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, and all kinds of conflicts you probably have never heard of you, whoever you are. I am as American as it's possible to be, and no, Guatemalans do not "deserve" to be able to simply walk into the country my ancestors suffered and died to create and help themselves to what they built. Period. The end.
Particularly sickening is Cohen's moralistic attitude. What he dresses up as kindergarten share-your-cookie compassion is actually the crassest kind of political manipulation, on behalf of the actual elites of this country. Democratic strongholds are some of the wealthiest, most segregated and most inequitable places in the country -- Marin County, California, for example. And Manhattan, where Cohen resides. And these are the people who are pushing, hard, for the border to be opened up for people who do not speak English, who have no assets, who do not understand American culture, values or history, and who are fundamentally unemployable. They're going to need a great deal of government support simply to function here, and no, I'm not willing to underwrite it.
Countries are real. Borders are real. Laws are real. And the insistence that if I believe in these fundamental concepts, things that have organized human societies wince they were created, I'm some kind of monster, is obscene.
19
@John Pettimore
Many parts of your comment, John, are not correct. (And if you know they are not correct, then they are lies.) Nobody is asking for open borders. Nobody is claiming these folks deserve to walk across the border. These immigrants have employment statistics that put citizens to shame. According to the CBO, they pay more in taxes than they receive in government benefits or health care. Our laws require us to consider every application for asylum. Doing otherwise is breaking the law. Did you even read the article? The present administration is doing things right now that are making life in Guatemala more unbearable. It is causing more folks to show up at our borders. Your ancestors would be ashamed of your inability to know what is and isn't true, your susceptibility to xenophobic lies, your refusal to take responsibility for the actions of your government.
17
A caring, comprehensive and multi-faceted look at Central America Immigration into America. I sincerely wish more American leaders were better versed in the complexities Cohen's exposes.
Such heartbreak and some hope for those of us fighting to see the little people win a battle against the drug trade and uncaring politicians of all stripe.
6
Almost a year after President Trump ended his cruel “zero tolerance” policy that ripped kids from their parents, children, most from Central America, are still pouring in — some 40,000 in April alone, almost 9,000 of them unaccompanied by a parent.
RC, my heart was with you until you had to go and use “ripped” in that sentence, that’s not what child protective services does. Obviously Trump-biased bleeding hearts nor allusions to SS storm troopers does poor suffering Guatemalans any good. The ideal is to find solutions to problems to help people, not inflame passions even worse so that they become irreconcilable.
4
The biggest migrations (or immigration in current parlance) in the world history occurred because of...
lack of crops and food production
lack of employment
post war ravages
And, above all FAMINE.
But waiting a few years, the drought would stop and things would go back to what it was before.
What needs to be emphasized is THIS climate change is NOT going to go away.
When temperatures rise and stay risen, when water scarcity stays scarce, when things "don't" go back to normal...
Then the human flood coming from South America, I don't think you will be able to stop, considering the "destruction of infrastructure" that the utter rot of their politics, drugs, gun violence and overpopulation has done to these places already.
There is so much that can be done....
There is no political will though.
6
Thank you, Roger. I feel as if I understand what is happening vis-à-vis Guatemala and our southern border much better now. Based on your fine work, we can conclude the following: The actions of Trump et al. are making conditions worse in Guatemala and thereby making circumstances worse at our southern border. For instance, Trump and his enablers (Lee of Utah, Crawford of Arkansas) are actively undermining democracy and systems of justice in Guatemala. After years of drought--probably caused by global warming--Guatemala is already no longer habitable. The White House are not doing any of the things that would actually improve conditions in Guatemala, e.g., combatting corruption. The part that we already knew is this: Trump following McConnell has turned politics into outright partisan warfare. A political compromise no longer seems possible. Trump's base will not permit him to treat these folks decently and humanely.
4
I have lived in Guatemala for ten years directing a ministry that touches education, child protection and justice systems. Guatemalans are deeply attached to family and community. If there was hope they would not leave. What this report documents is just the tip of the ice berg. If a Guatemalan child is raped, she and her family face a nightmare system that is not just victim unfriendly but victim abusive. When justice seldom comes, it comes in years. Meanwhile the child and family are subject to threats. Only 7% of sex crimes end in conviction. If a family invests in starting a business they will likely be targeted for extortion. If they report this, they will not find support from police and be subject to retribution from the extortionists. The police do not investigate crimes. When the police are called they are likely to say they have no gas. Without street level justice there will be no economic justice, not safety for families and more people fleeing. The US will not only need a high wall but ear plugs to block the screams for help.
9
As long as employers are not fined or jailed for hiring undocumented workers they will come. They come because there is work and whatever is here is better than there.
7
Unfortunately we American citizens no longer have the privilege to criticize the leadership in other countries, including and especially the "strong men" style politicking favored and practiced in Central/South America. I can only imagine if Mr. Morales reads this article he'd probably say, "look who's talking".
1
I am still stunned by one aspect of this column, that Mr Cohen wrote these lines:
"The candor of his gaze was almost unbearable. I decided I had to go to his village of Aldea Las Guacemayas to see for myself what had propelled him northward."
So many columnist and pundits talk about immigration as if they knew something about it. The fact that Mr. Cohen took the time to go to Guatemala and not only Guatemala but to the village of Aldea las Guacemayas deep in rural Guatemala says so much.
I have been to Guatemala not as a tourist but as a human rights advocate. I've seen what he is talking about here. I suggest others go too. So many politicians and citizens speak on this issue from a place of "I know what I know". The truth is much different.
The problem is not on the border, its in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Thank you for taking the time Mr Cohen to go and see.
22
Roger Cohen paints a compelling picture of Guatemala's problems and refers to US inaction. We have no moral duty to re-order Guatemala's affairs, but we do have a self-interest in improving conditions there in order to avoid Guatemala's implosion and a continuing flow of desperate migrants to the US. As to the latter, it's not quite clear whether Mr. Cohen objects to the ham-handed nature of Trump's attempts to stem illegal migration, or to the very concept of limits. In any case, the same climate change (global warming) factors to which his article refers in Guatemala are increasingly affecting much of the rest of the globe, and soon will touch off migration flows of a size never seen in world history. If the US as a society and a political system is not to be overwhelmed by those flows, we need to harden the border. I despise Trump and nearly everything else he does, but a tough emphasis on border security is warranted to prepare ourselves for the real deluge which will occur beginning in another couple decades. Just look at how Europe's democratic systems have been shaken by popular reaction to huge migrant inflows. It can happen here in the US, as well. Indeed, Trump's election is an early "canary in the coal mine" warning of what could happen.
6
Maybe we could put some energy into stopping global climate change rather than an ultimately futile effort to hold back desparate people. Watch Children of Men for what that is going to look like.
4
@Marc Nicholson No moral duty? Guatemala was the second elected government the CIA overthrew. The crime? Offering to buy uncultivated land from United Fruit Company (Chiquita Banana now) at the price United Fruit Co. claimed in it's tax forms. Happened that UFC under reported the value and on the board of UFC was the bother of the director of the CIA. Thus are communist made. No eminent domain for US corporations in other countries. Plus most of the current problems are rooted in the cocaine trade. So if the US was not snorting tons of cocaine, there would not be a cocaine trade.
4
a lot of well to do people are snorting cocaine but many are not. it's the chicken or egg argument but drugs like war are profitable and until they are not these crimes will continue. Central American countries are failed states; if they were not migrants wouldn't leave. It's possible to control the border successfully but agencies are underfunded and Congress is dysfunctional. There are thousands of poor homeless citizens. These come first. To people like Cohen charity begins at home.
4
Reduced aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador means more migrants. Trump must know that.
However, he also knows that more migrants mean more money to prison companies and other hangers-on who make money by "housing", feeding, and supplying the facilities in which they are kept. Clearly, Trump thinks that is more important.
5
"This situation is unconscionable. Americans of all political stripes should be able to agree on that. The United States has to reconcile being a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."
We reconciled to that long ago, Mr. Cohen. That is why we have mechanisms in place for immigrants to enter this country and obtain citizenship legally. You ARE aware of that, are you not?
No one -- whether they are a Guatemalan farm worker or a wealthy broker on Wall Street -- is entitled to anything.
13
Mr. Cohen forgot to add that Human Rights Activists who are trying to help people there - are getting murdered at an alarming rate. Check out the NPR story from January "Killings of Guatemala's Indigenous Activists Raise Specter of Human Rights Crisis". The world 1992 Nobel Peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu wrote about - does not seem that dissimilar to what is happening there now.
10
The following is from the 3/8/11 PBS Newshour segment titled "In Guatemala, Family Planning Clashes with Religion, Tradition”. "Stories about the dangers of birth control are often linked to religion ...” "Here, populations are overwhelmingly Mayan and overwhelmingly religious. Women typically have eight, nine, 10 children.”
"Years ago, more children meant more hands to work the land. But generation after generation, farms are divided into smaller and smaller plots. There's less food to harvest. And with big families comes more mouths to feed. Nearly half the population of Guatemala suffers from chronic malnutrition.”
“ ...46 percent of children are stunted.” "Malnourished children have 12 points less of I.Q. than a normal child. We will have a great majority of the population with diminished mental capacities.”
In 1955, Guatemala had only 3,625,300 people. Today it has 17,577,842 with an average age of 21.
Between rapid population growth (in a country that has always suffered from occasional droughts) and climate change, Guatemala is in trouble. It needs temporary food aid, artificial means of birth control, and advice on what to plant in its changing climate.
57
Cohen wrote a great piece...but nothing on population. That is what I saw after 6 years working among the poor in Honduras. The only thing that will help if they continue with so many kids is an open US border.
11
@ann
Your comment looks an awful lot like that same old rightwing demographics canard. "Those people need to stop procreating. Their problems are the result of their own fecklessness. They have always had the occasional drought." There is a direct connection between birth rates and societal development. When societies develop, which requires many things, and folks do better, including especially the women, then families have far fewer children. There is no nation that has not followed this developmental pattern. It has nothing to do with the religion or the color of one's skin or knowing what to plant. Once upon a time, Americans had big families, too.
3
@ann All true. And, of course, our genius president has implemented an extreme version of the "global gag" rule which will make it less likely that birth control aid will be provided. It's almost like they want to make the problem worse, so that they can keep Central American migration as an issue.
Oh - wait... Please delete the words, "It's almost like".
5
My husband and I live in the state of Veracruz,Mexico near the mountains if not quite in them. This is not a gringo enclave. We live in a small town, a colonia,and we are the only gringos here. People are hardly rich here. A few are middle class by Mexican standards. Near us are very poor people, maybe not quite as poor as in Guatemala because in our area, there still is rain and some opportunity. We have a new president who wants to improve the lives of the poor, a substantial number of Mexicans. But I don't think he knows how to deal with Trump so Mexico will also suffer. The US desperately needs to think of North America and Central America as a family of siblings where it uses its wealth to make up for the damage done by a couple of centuries of its previous policies. Trump is doing the extreme opposite. Mexico may become Guatemala, and Guatemala may become worse. Starvation anyone?
8
@EKB I want to add that figuring out how to deal with Trump is clearly not a problem unique to AMLO but to all the world's leaders I suspect.
1
Yes, there are miserable, failed states all about us. And since we are heirs to the Monroe Doctrine, I guess it's "our" problem to somehow "fix" it.
But national policy is, inevitably, less about the heart than the head.
The heart says: Save poor Pablo. The head says: Try spending two weeks in neighborhoods at war in Chicago; or the depths of opiatevilles throughout the forgotten rural US. Or two weeks living in a tent next to a freeway interchange here in Portland--tents I pass every day.
Got a solution for these folks--who happen to be US citizens? To paraphrase Jordan Peterson: Before you save the world, clean up your room.
22
Proper immigration reform should let temporary workers come in to help with labor shortages in the agricultural sector. It also should let in immigrants based on educational and skill levels of the applicants.
Trump, while paying lip service to immigration reform, is deep down a racist who would rather not have any immigrants come into the country unless they are from "Norway".
As for Mr. Cohen's article I'd like to see a follow up report on Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba to show the effects of socialist governments in the hemisphere. Then we can discuss his support of Warren/Sanders...
4
Many of us will remember George W. Bush intoning his platitudes against "nation building" in one of the debates in the 2000 Presidential campaign. His administration embarked on large "nation building" programs in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.
While the merits of the U.S. attempting "nation building" in countries located on other continents many thousands of miles away are questionable, the wisdom of embarking on "nation building" in our own hemisphere is obvious. With the sole exception of the much-maligned NAFTA, the U.S. has not made any serious efforts to help develop and enrich its near neighbors. In fact the stability of the U.S. is far more dependent upon stability and prosperity in the countries in its own hemisphere than on the stability and prosperity in countries in the Middle East or Asia.
Do you want to see the end of streams of migrants into the U.S., straining our infrastructure and economy? Then invest seriously and extensively in building the countries south of us into stable and prosperous nations in their own right. And the bonus? The increased economic activity in the region will enlarge business opportunity for ourselves as well as for our neighbors.
5
@Flaminia The problem in many impoverished regions throughout the world is over population.
Look at the example Cohen gives. This guy has too many children to support on what he makes. If he had fewer children his income would be sufficient.
The need for birth control in many regions of the world is a high imperative. It used to be a family needed lots of children since many died early and other were needed to work along with their parents in the fields. Those conditions which required lots of children no longer exist in many regions, but the people still keep having large families which they are unable to support.
I only wish the US was not so hung up on birth control since we should be advocating it all over the world.
18
@judyweller. I agree it is a good idea to make birth control readily available for the people of these countries as one of many measures to improve their quality of life in the near term. Returning to my argument in favor of so-called "nation building," remember that birth rates invariably fall once countries become more prosperous.
4
@Flaminia Birth control has to be more than available. In the cases of large families there needs to be some mandatory action taken - like paying women to have their tubes tied etc. I know that has been done in other countries to start to bring population under control. If you don't control the population first they will never get to the part where prosperity causes people not to want more children than they can afford.
4
This person is an economic migrant and should never have passed the credible fear test.
He brought along a child to ensure that he could like and work in the US before appearing before and immigration court. He will surely he deported.
This is an example of why we need to tighten up the credible fear test so that economic migrants don't slip through.
Also we should have more judges at the border so that asylum cases can be decided within 3-5 months. To do this we need a First in First out principle as it will help clear the backlog.
20
Thank you Roger Cohen for a terrific article that so accurately describes the situation in Guatemala and mirrors neighboring countries. Until there is rule of law and fiscal reform that includes a more just tax system, inequality and poverty will continue.
Also worth checking how much money US companies are making on those ankle bracelets, just saying...
Vicki Gass
6
What puzzles me is that the United Nations hasn't played a more vigorous role in Guatemala. The conditions are horrendous in the country, but crossing illegally into the United States is not a solution for the violence and corruption in the country that is driving so many people to escape.
Where are the United Nations forces, and why aren't they helping the people of this small country.
10
Thanks for this overview chock full of foreign policy tidbits- that I’m trying to get my head around.
A Guatemalan president whose Party’s next candidate does photo ops with drug traffickers. While we have arrested another candidate for drug trafficking conspiracy. Yet only a small percentage of the actual drug traffic is interrupted. And Pompeo touts Guatemala’s efforts in counter narcotics and security. Security? Smugglers getting $5000 for 2 people headed to our border? I guess it does secure Guatemala from any internal dissent - and aids president Trump’s claim of emergency- that he and his policies seem to be encouraging, aiding. How convenient....and timely.
Then we have a few of our U.S. Reps, Senators, calling for self determination via free and fair elections. Uh, does this apply to Saudi Arabia? Egypt? Given that Dan Coates’ concerns about our own election process seems to be ignored, does that include bipartisan oversight of our own elections??
Honorable mention goes to our current ambassador Arreaga, and our State Department (the non political appointee parts) for trying to remember when our foreign policy actually meant something decent.
Protecting and defending the Constitution? Enabling other governments that create a political border emergency for us?
And speaking of multilateralism- where are all those united nations- so wanting our support in Europe; a UN treaty ignored...and they do what? Nothing.
6
Thank you for going in depth on the crisis in Guatemala. This is exactly the kind of reporting that helps me understand the world. I am so grateful. The story is also a kick in the gut and a little hard to take.
It made me remember a ceremony I went to in Portland city hall. My husband was getting honored for some work he was doing in the community. A lot of people were being honored — it was a pretty inspiring occasion. This one group of men got up. They had the unassuming look of indigenous Central Americans. They were smaller than everyone in the room and darker. They didn’t speak English and were standing close together as if wondering what was going to happen next. They were being honored for saving a mans live. They had been nearby when a truck caught on fire. While all the other bystanders screamed and looked on in horror (probably my response), they jumped into action, trying to find a way to get the driver out. Some of them were burned as they tried different things. They got the man out before he burned to death. I was so moved by what they had done and by what it meant. These are some of the people who are trying to come to our country.
7
Once again, the lefty columnists want to blame Trump for problems in Latin America that predate him, that Obama did nothing about. And do you think any of the democrat clown car of candidates will do anything to fix Guatemala? Have you heard anyone of them offer a Latin America policy that will fix anything there?
We've already taken in millions of immigrants from Latin America. No one knows how many for certain. But open borders won't fix those countries. At best it is a stop gap measure. The only solution is for these countries to become modern democracies free of the violence they suffer and able to offer their own economic opportunity. But how does that happen? Are these countries beyond hope except for the ruling elite? What plans does the current dem congress offer on this. What plans did they offer in 2009-2011?
There aren't any. The only thing about LA that the left cares about is the ability to use it to attack Trump.
20
And Trump? What has he proposed? A big beautiful wall.
5
Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for tracking down this story in New Mexico, Guatemala, Mexico and, possibly, Washington. Your travels represent a great deal of shoe leathering to bring your readers to the scene of heartbreak right in our own backyard with the hope that this horror may be rectified. As a retired journalist at home and abroad, I commend you for practicing journalism at its best.
5
"What brought Rigoberto Pablo and his child here is an old and honorable idea of the United States: “I came to this country to make money and to improve my life,” he told me when we spoke this month. … in August he will appear in court to apply for asylum.”
Asylum is reserved for those who are fleeing persecution due to their religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Instead of trying to absorb ever increasing numbers of Guatemalans, our president should advise Morales and his political cronies to allow the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala to continue its work.
Our president could also offer Peace Corps volunteers who could explain family planning (most Guatemalans have 8, 9, or ten children) and ask the Church to allow the use of artificial means of birth control.
Peace Corps volunteers could help improve Guatemala's educational system, help farmers design and build reservoirs and find crops that would thrive in their changing ecosystems, and teach Guatemalans how to start a small business.
American and Guatemalan philanthropies could start Grameen-style banks that would offer small business loans.
We could help Guatemalans turn their country around.
13
@ann
You offer some good ideas here, but there's one meme that really bothers me.
It took me about a second to find the most recent Guatemalan birth rate statistics on Google: 2.97 children for each woman. Still higher than ours, but nothing like the exaggerations of uninformed people in the U.S.
Of course, it's also true that the children of the rich have vastly more environmental impact than children of the poor, since they will grow up to eat meat, live in air-conditioned single-family houses, own lots of clothes, take daily hot baths, drive to work every day in their SUVs and get to their vacation spots on airplanes.
I fully support free, universally available, voluntary birth control and abortion for everyone on the planet. But this false argument that "they can't be helped because they all have 10 kids anyway" is just another way of turning our backs on our neighbors.
4
All this feel-good talk about a new Marshall Plan. Is that the new buzzword?
England, France and Germany were modern functioning countries before the war. The Marshall Plan gave them the funds to rebuild, literally, their infrastructure and industries that previously existed. It is not a model for helping these impoverished, chaotic, and corrupt Central American countries. Sending money will do nothing to solve their endemic problems.
18
The root of the problem is bad governance - a pseudo-democratic system controlled by military-backed economic elite groups to keep taxes and government spending very low and to keep open channels of corruption, i.e. to maintain their dominance. They prosper while the country stagnates. Kids don't get educated; workers' rights are ignored; poverty is the norm.
No much-needed 'Marshall Plan' of aid will work until serious democratic political reforms begin that can give (a new) U.S. government committed partners for development programs, especially in Guatemala and Honduras. I know from experience - I directed large U.S. aid programs in the region during and after the civil wars. Nowadays, poor, desperate people have lost all hope for positive change and are voting instead with their feet.
Pressuring the governments to block migration won't stop it; don't expect it to. Suspending aid won't stop it either, nor will the aid make much difference when government political will for reform is lacking.
The 'solution': a bipartisan policy of support for democratic political reforms, rule of law and development investment with much-needed open criticism and withdrawal of support when it is lacking. Call it 'tough love' and be willing to support that strategy with 'Marshall Plan' levels of aid conditional on performance. A peaceful revolution is needed or the civil wars will break out again and make current levels of migration look small by comparison.
7
Thank you for your timely and personal research into a heartbreaking problem. Most Americans do not understand that this problem was caused largely by our own country's support for right-wing dictators, combined with our disdain for those most affected by climate change. We need to change our political leadership, and fast. I am tired of being recognized internationally only for being a know-nothing bully.
8
and, much of the corruption and social chaos is fueled by drug money - money ultimately made because drugs are made and/or cheap in Central America and illegal and hence expensive in America, the reverse being true for guns. there's more than enough culpability to go around and a big part of it is our own. image what would happen if the illegal drug business collapsed. then, ask yourself, would YOU decide to become a drug user?
3
Some smart American techies who are recent millionaires should set up mobile-centric banking and taxation system which we tell the Guatemalan government is governed by us with full transparency and auditing.
To allow the US to administer the taxation, there is matching from the US (foreign aid) so that all funds go to social programs needed by the people.
1
A central American Marshall plan is an excellent idea - if it can be implemented without being corrupted. How would the investments reach the people who need it without be siphoned off by corrupt government officials? That is the hard part.
9
It seems like evil is overtaking every corner of the world. How did humans become so corrupted? Why is goodness being snuffed out by evil? I don’t yet see someone or something on the horizon with the rebuttal to this evil. There is goodness in each person...but there is nobody yet summoning this goodness to come forth. Where did leadership go?
7
So, after the tears dry, what is your proposed solution, Mr. Cohen?
You're against regime change (I'm with you there), so no political hope in Guatemala. You proclaim that that country is in an advanced state of climate change (without any scientific proof, but, hey, it feels right), so no hope of change there.
It would appear that the only solution is for the US to open its arms to every Guatemalean. And Hondurean. And Salvadorian. Ad infinitum.
And what about the fact that it is America's drug addicts who are fueling much of what you see? Wouldn't want to try to change them, would you? No way -- too judgmental.
So much easier to just blame Trump.
16
@Uysses Mr. Cohen *does* suggest a course of action -- one directly opposite the course being taken by President Trump: namely, more U.S. involvement and $ support for democratic and economic reforms in Central America, not less. Cohen is correct in pointing out that until action is taken to reverse the "implosion of Central America," our borders will continue to be swamped by desperate human beings.
8
@Jackson Take a good look at what 17 years of involvement has bought us in Afghanistan? It will go no better in Central America.
12
Roger, how about a Democratic Party backing of primary opponents against Rick Crawford and Mike Lee? How about a campaign exposing the record of the likes of Eliot Abrams? How about Senate/House committee hearings on Cicig? Is any well-aimed political action useful or even possible? Has the putative Trump base no shame?
Almost as heart-wrenching as the fate of the family you describe so powerfully well is the mean-spirited reaction of those who blindly accept Trump's so-called foreign policy. Consider some of the commentators on this story. Hard to admit it, but the much noted divided "discourse" of our country at this time mostly shows that the racism and greed and self-serving stupidity of many of our fellow citizens is finally what sustains this tragic state of affairs.
Roger, you have met your responsibility as a truth-telling reporter. I hope your strength lasts.
8
Trump is only the latest expression of the stupidity of our foreign policy when translated back to domestic politics.
George Kennan provided an able assessment and nuanced strategy for containing the Soviet Union in 1948, but that got reduced to the Cold War abroad and the Red Scare at home. A very complex world was reduced to Us versus Them.
It was not the only time when a thoughtful policy got inflamed by irrational fears and hubris. Highlights include Cold War interventions in Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Nicaragua.
Now, we reap the bitter fruit of our interventions in Central America with the stupidity of a wall. We stumble about without a single memory of past follies bearing the bitter fruit on our borders. Our political learning disability puts the innocent in a vice between hopelessness and despair. No wonder they seek escape.
The first step is to admit you have a problem. It lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And in every town in America.
6
Now, we ought to be proud of having honest, and courageous journalists, informing everybody willing to see and hear what's going on. In this case, an awful case of injustice, in this Trumpian country that forgot who we are and where we came from. Trump, a despot himself, and dishonesty personalized, no surprise that he is consistent in supporting the corrupt tyrants of the world; and Jimmy Morales, praised by the Trump/Pompeo jesters, is one of them, for Guatemala's despair. Have we lost our morals, that there is hardly a voice of protest while our solidarity has become a thing of the past?
4
You think this is bad? Wait until the floodgates of climate change driven migration open! Then chaos will reign regardless of our laws!
7
Guatemala has the highest fertility rate in Latin America- you think that might have something to do with the problem of inadequate opportunity there? The fact is that the countries with the highest rates of migration tend to be the ones with the highest birth rates.
So how does a generous immigration policy actually help in the long run when it increases the economic incentive to have large families? Send 5 of your children to the golden kingdom to find work, and the odds are good at least one will be sending money home.
We should help the people in countries like Guatemala by supporting family planning and women's rights and fight the Catholic anti-birth control orthodoxy.
Countries that can least afford a rapidly expanding population are now the source of most population increase on the planet. Individual families benefit from larger size but the countries as a whole (and the environment of the entire globe) suffer the consequences terribly.
A stupid bleeding heart can cause more suffering than it heals. When you only address the symptom, you sometimes encourage the disease.
30
Thank you Mr. Cohen. Such a revealing and terrifying piece about the struggles of our brothers to survive in lawless places where the Trump administration could care less if they just laid down and died. No wall is going to solve this problem. Meanwhile the Sun King hits a little white ball into a hole at Mar-a-Lago.
3
Just a few months after Trump's inauguration the German weekly Der Spiegel had a cover on its edition dated April, 2nd, 2017 after his Muslim ban.
It showed Trump with a blood dripping knife in one hand, and Lady Liberty's decapitated head in the other.
I will never forget that image, applying not only to Muslims fleeing their war torn countries, but central Americans trying to survive and seeking refuge from state induced abject poverty, crimes against humanity, drug trafficking, etc.
It is a very alarming moment for all Americans - and many of us who have immigrated to the US from Western Europe- that fascism has risen its depraved and life destroying totalitarian head again in the supposedly 'greatest' nation of the world against "The Others", but also in Poland and Hungary.
5
@Sarah Look at the threats made on Kathy Griffin when she sent out the photo of herself that was somewhat like the one on the cover of Der Spiegel.
Apparently the only right we have anymore is the right to remain silent.
You are good at such descriptions, Mr Cohen, and much better than a globalist of yore !
The underlying fact is history. Our own history, which explains our culpability for the tragic situation, centuries in the making, from the Spanish Conquest, post-Conquest slavery and otherwise forced labor, colonial and post-colonial exploitation, now magnified by magnificently efficient global capitalism, which counts only money as value and not human beings and other life forms, this misery courtesy of Euroamerica and the US in particular, and which includes genocide of the descendants of the greatest ancient civilization of the Americas. The model example of our culpability is the 1954 CIA sponsored coup for the sake of the American United Fruit Company, which ended a precious few years of democracy and led to decades of death squad activity culminating in the genocide and the situation today. People like Pablo suffer because of what we did to him and the other indigenous and ladino masses. Of course he and others like him come to America. It is because of the misery we caused. The Trump fans, following the unsubtle racism of their Tweeter-in-Chief, of course, want to slam the door shut on all those little brown people, based on so-called laws to protect America from being “overrun” by the ragged, dirty, somehow less-than-good types who will only take away jobs and go on welfare. And all this despite the fact these people carry the blood inheritance of a great ancient people here in the Americas long before us.
4
There is no "us" or "them" in the parlance of a humanity under climate's assault. As this assault intensifies, we will be in a moralistic sci-fi tale. The foolish will be those who seek to escape by setting up an electric barbed wire fence with machine gun turrets to deter the desperate hordes of climate refugees.
Those who wish to die in peace will see humans all in the same boat, and embrace a new internationalism.
This is exactly where climate change leads us. We will still probably go down soon to climate's ravages. But when I choose the option of all of humanity, I see us going down with dignity. The other option--killing and killing to maintain our advantages for a short while---is too ugly to contemplate.
2
The description of a hot and dry Guatemala tears at my heart.
There is no "them" in the parlance of a humanity under the assault of a ravaged climate. As this assault intensifies, we will be in a moralistic sci-fi tale. Big questions like national loyalty will be addressed. The miserable ones, seeking to defend the border, will be compelled to set up an electric barbed wire fence with machine gun turrets to keep people out.
Those who wish to die in peace as our civilization goes down will reach out with simple love as did Therese Todd of Texas, from another Times article : https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/us/texas-border-good-samaritan.html
The other option--killing and killing to maintain our advantages for a short while---is too ugly to contemplate.
34
It certainly is a crisis, and not only for the USA. Worldwide, climate change and bestial authoritarian dictators are creating havoc.
Then, illegal immigration contains the word "illegal" for a reason that's not just grammatical. I applied to green card for me and my family and waited 30 months w/o knowing if was or wasn't going to be approved.
No country should accept "illegal" individuals. Instead, all nations should use the castrated and inoperative dis-United Nations and work forcefully to act in order to facilitate the recovery in place of all those suffering unspeakable living conditions at the hands of corrupt leadership.
I am completely sure that migrants would prefer to stay where they speak their language, know the customs, have their families and love their country.
You don't cure stomach cancer with skin ointments. Serious deep and aggressive surgical intervention is needed.
5
Anyone really surprised?!
The American Gov. once again employs the same kleptocratic crooks that ran the Reagan/Bush/Bush regimes previous. Back to the same players, using the same tactics for the same outcomes. Rightwing neo-fascist dictators.
Sadly, it is always against the lower class local indigenous peoples.
Even here in 'merica.
Once again, America has an important election coming up.
More of the same?!
Same establishment methods that go us, and the world, in it's terminal predicament? One where only the best off survive?
...or change?~!
What's it going to be America?!
NotMeUs
4
Thank you Mr. Cohen. You have the courage and decency to find the truth and report it.
American policy is being driven by a malignant narcissist (Trump) aided by a sick young man (Stephen Miller) and is obviously stupid and self-defeating.
The majority of Americans need to exercise their will and desire to change their leadership, and soon.
4
We could start by reopening Gabriella's school. Send the people to do that. Offer medical assistance. Send the people to do that. Form an alliance at the local level between aid workers and elected officials, all of whom would be teachers, medical workers, clergy and those who provide social infrastructure. They would collect their own taxes to hire and pay police/judiciary and other essential government workers. Safe neighborhoods, schools, sanitation, basic medical would be the goal through community effort, community by community, backed by U.S. dollars. The devastating drought should be treated as a product of global warming, the U.S. in Central America being the foremost contributor. They would receive emergency relief funds just like U.S. communities, but with supervision that the funds are well spent on government services through democracy at the local level. Support what the people want and what helps them. By-pass the corruption.
Subsidize through our banks alliances in Central America to do micro-lending. Encourage manufactured exports of legitimate goods to the United States. Essentially bring back The Alliance for Progress.
We also have farm surpluses for immediate food aid, if that is called for. More if the Chinese respond to the new tariffs.
The lawlessness also applies to Trump. We need to by-pass the extreme racisim in our own government to get this done. Eventually those forced to leave their families to come here will want to return.
6
Let's be honest the complexities of the problems the NYT presents each day on its front page are far beyond the intellectual capacities and educational backgrounds of our current administration.
4
When it comes to much of the world, and particularly Latin America, the United States has always wanted to assert the title of "most powerful nation on earth" while simulaneously exonerating itself of any accountability for the policies and conditions of those countries. That Latin Americans are directly responsible for the cruelty against their own is inarguable, but North Americans can't pretend that our policies, mercenaries, proxy wars and money have little to no effect. On the contrary, those are the fuel, engine and vehicle that have driven most of these parasites who suck the lives out of their own countries since we declared our "god-given right" to Manifest Destiny.
3
Thank you Roger Cohen for your in-depth writing on the plight of Guatemalans, those seeking a better life, and the family of Rigoberto Pablo. There is still a core of Americans that are committed to the founding principles of this country, that extend the hand of shelter and protection to those in need no matter their place of origin or skin color.
Three winters ago I studied Spanish at the Mountain School in Guatemala. Over the four week period I was treated with compassion and care by my teachers, hosts and the greater community I lived in. But around my oasis was a region ravaged by trauma and violence. During my time studying there were four murders, three at the hands of extortionists, and one roadside robbery turned murder. The first people on the scene as the bullet riddled man lay dying was a group of high school students from the mid west, also studying Spanish at the Mountain School. They were on a field trip to explore local villages and cultures and were taught a lesson no young person should have to learn. Violence and danger is rampart in Guatemala and our administration is allowing it to happen by supporting a vacuum of lawfulness, accountability, and compassion.
America can and must do better. We can not let the cruelty of our President define who we are as a country. We can vote out the horror show and elect leaders who honor the ideals of our founders. And we can go to Guatemala as citizen diplomats assuring our Southern neighbors they are not abandoned.
11
Magnificent, Mr. Cohen--the most important article I have ever read in the NYT. My idea of this country--I descended from Irish immigrants who escaped their famine-ravaged homeland--is that the U.S. is a land of freedom and opportunity for all. Thank you for traveling to Guatemala and for the depiction of that family. You are a courageous and eloquent witness. And the photographs are powerful. Please thank D. Volpe.
4
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald
We are clearly faced with two equally valid opposing ideas. The first is the obvious need for compassion for the citizens of Central America, who are clearly in desperate straits. The second is the need to control the number of immigrants we admit. We can't ignore the plight of these people, and we can't be the relief valve for the Western Hemisphere's humanitarian overflow problems.
We can share that burden. Where are Mexico, Columbia, and other countries? Why aren't they flocking to Argentina, Brazil, or Chile? The countries of the Americas could work together to mitigate this problem and not just rely on us, especially given the state we're in politically. But so far they haven't. It's up to us.
At some point, we'll end up doing what the rest of the world does out of sheer necessity. We'll see huge refugee camps on or near our border. That's what happens when countries melt down and their citizens flee.
10
"Nothing. I kept hearing the word. Nothing from the government, nothing to do — no water, no education, no health care, no jobs — “here there is nothing, nothing,” Valdomero declared, sweeping a hand across the sunbaked landscape." Roger Chohen, thank you so much for writing this opinion piece. Helping people help themselves is the most basic principle of offering foreign aid because it respects the dignity of all human beings. "Tear down this wall!" 1987 President Ronald Reagan.
5
To criticize Trump is to get a face full of ephemeral facts like wages are up, unemployment is down (oh right, deficits no longer matter). Meanwhile, as Bob Dylan said, "Life goes on all around us." If we go on ignoring the world we live in we're going to need a wall not just on our southern border but one that encircles our entire country. (Hey, even China's great wall couldn't keep the foreigners out!) There is no escape from the world we inhabit. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are a part of the whole. We can't escape poverty's misery here or in other countries. We can't escape climate changes by ignoring them.
We are the country that created the Marshall Plan. We are the country that put men on the moon. We conquered disease and poverty. We are those people. Yet, now we aim so low, and so we've come up with Trump.
81
Thank you for this article, Mr. Cohen.
We need more op/ed and journalist writers to do deep-dives so Americans better understand why we have chronic challenges involving migration and social stability in nations to our south
6
Cohen makes many good points, especially about the need for better policies toward Guatemala and other Central American countries and the need for more cooperation with them and Mexico. But the current wave is partly owed to specific laws about acceptance of political and humanitarian refugees, which have encouraged those in Central America to think that they will be able to get into the US easily. Trump can't change the law so he has resorted essentially to cruel intimidation.
Obviously the immigration laws need to be changed but Congress has been frozen since the 2013 bipartisan bill, which was favored not only by the country as a whole but by a majority in Congress, was quashed by the Republican leadership. Democrats need to promise to address the real changes needed in immigration law - not just to allow free entry to everyone in the world.
3
It's very easy for this article to place all the blame on this President ,that will solve all. Incidentally mentioned however one past President who's actions began much of the tumultuous existence ,yet did not mention the other last President whose amnesty promises without congressional approval suddenly increased the border rush by hundreds of percentages. It's so easy just to blame one President for everything and call it a day,but the truth ,is otherwise.
5
@Alan Einstoss
The responsibility for today's problems lie with the those currently in power. If you do not see Trump's and Miller's actions and "policies" as worsening the border situation -- do you not understand the increased numbers of people reaching our border, did you not read this article? -- then your argument loses validity.
7
It makes me want to cry.
I visited Guatemala for business several times more than 20 years ago. One day I went to an appointment early and sat in the entrance lobby. Every person - and I mean every - who entered looked at me and said “Buenos Dias”. Someone told me - I have no way of knowing whether or not it is true - that 90% of the wealth in Guatemala is held by 400 families. Clearly there is a great divide in wealth. “Justice” you pay for. Anyone, whether in Congress, the Administration, the State Department, or a citizen, disavowing the value brought by outside independent agencies to the people of this country, should be held in shame and disgrace for turning away from the values that we once held dear in the USA.
11
That was a punch to the heart. How can we not take these people? Alternatively, why don’t we overthrow the racist so-called governments down there?
1
My problem with this piece is that the debate about borders lacks nuance. It's either build a wall and lock up all the refugees a la Trump or open borders for refugees from failed states like Guatemala. Mr. Cohen does offer some suggestions such as a Marshall plan for the most dire of Latin American casualties combined with attempts to work out regional solutions with other governments. But it sounds nebulous and not thought through. I think progressives in the democratic party need to come up with something that balances the humanitarian case for rescuing families from brutal conditions with the equally valid case for protecting the interests and values of America's own citizenry. Compassion for others needs to be combined with security and safety for all Americans.
10
@Rmark6
Exactly. No one will go out on a limb politically and say out loud that we can't take everyone. I am waiting for the Democrat who is willing to take flak from those who can only rail about injustice but won't recognize that we can't fix everything. Great article Mr. Cohen, but the conclusion failed to adequately address this dilemma.
6
@Rmark6 The actual Marshall Plan was the opposite of nebulous, and we have more than enough money and resources to launch another one.
3
@Miriam Helbok
We should occupy and rebuild Central and South America? Or maybe we should just send many hundreds of billions of dollars to these countries and let their wonderful politicians spend it? And of course there is need like this all around the world. Will we fix countries everywhere or just in our hemisphere? This simplistic suggestion is just the flip side of build a wall.
5
According to Berkeley Earth, the average temperature in Guatemala has been cooling very slightly for the past two decades, at a mean rate of -0.17°C / century. So it seems odd to ascribe 4 years of changed landscape to global warming. One wonders, in fact, if Cohen has considered the more mundane, yet helpfully specific issues of deforestation and other changes in land use as a possible explanation for the changed landscape, as well as simple natural variability.
http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/regions/guatemala
3
@Bob
Super complex topic. Mean temperature in a place is a very limited statistic.The timing and magnitude of precipitation events, more temperature extremes, etc. Not agreeing or disagreeing with you but the global climate is very complex and Guatemala is a tiny place.
4
@Teal On the contrary, it's not complex at all. It is remarkably simple. If there is a drought in a village in Northwest Guatemala, then it is caused by "climate change." What could be more simple than that? Roger Cohen figured it out, and he probably put less than half a second of thought into it.
What would be more complex would be to understand whether the massive deforestation that has occurred in Northwestern Guatemala has impacted on precipitation patterns. Or to understand the local weather effects of the double El Nino that took place from 2014-2017. Or to understand the weather patterns of the area that have obtained for the past several centuries in order to ascertain whether 4 years of drought is actually unusual in the least. Or to look critically at "attribution models" that ridiculously purport to know what the weather in one particular place would have been for the past 4 years if CO2 levels were 280ppm and not 400ppm. And that is just the short list.
But the topic is apparently not that super complex. If a place seems dry, then that is because of climate change. Ditto if a place seems wet. Ditto if it is dry, then wet, then dry again, then average. Ditto for windy, still, cloudy, clear, snowy, warm, and cold. It is remarkably simple. Only ignoramuses like Trump cannot see the blinding simplicity of it all.
2
Thank you Roger. i was reminded of the Guatemalan lady who I have known for over 15 years as she has moved as waitress and then cook from one South Indian restaurant - yes, East India - to another. She had also fled her family, taking her young sons with her, both now working their way through local schools, speak good English, and, most impressively, are seen in the restaurant, working their way through masala dosas and mango lassi.
5
This is journalism at its finest and most courageous. It takes guts to go to a dangerous place in order to educate Americans about what is causing this migration crisis. And the example of what happened in Columbia is an example of a policy that can work. Thank you for this.
19
Thank you for telling this story. In just a few pargraphs you have told the tragic story of this man's family and country. The causes of this misery are many and your suggestions of how we can help alleviate their suffering are good. We need to stand up to corruption and demogogues in our country and theirs. Borders and walls are no longer serve any one. There is now a desperate need for compassionate leadership and serious solutions for dealing with climate warming.
Alan Dater
13
@a href
"Borders and walls are [sic] no longer serve any one"
Sympathy and empathy are wonderful, but they cannot drive every decision. Migration from poor regions is a huge problem worldwide. Opening all borders is a terrible idea. Please vote for someone who deals with reality.
6
@Teal
Why is opening all borders a terrible idea? Have you really thought about it? What if we lived in a world where anyone could go anywhere he or she could find work, just like you can move from any of the 50 U.S. states to another or from one European Union country to another, no questions asked? Would living standards be more equal around the world? Would more people be exposed to new ideas? Would more people have a chance to live life to the fullest? Isn't a more open world the ultimate goal?
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
It is rare that an op ed can put together the disparate threads of the dysfunction that is found in Guatemala. Now if only we had a President and Secretary of State that understood these issues and why they matter....
11
It is easy to blame Trump rather than the true culprits in Congress. Bush 2 proposed an immigration plan with a path for dreamers 15 years ago. Congress did nothing. As Congress abdicates power by inaction, the executive and judicial branches have to take on Congressional duties. Both parties are culpable. Why do you think Presidents and Supreme Court nominees are more important that ever? In Congress, both party's obstruct the other's goals which has produced decades of gridlock. Elections do nothing to change the dynamic of Congressional gridlock because both factions operate a scorched earth policy. Congress, the primary branch, has rendered itself redundant.
4
Hope it’s not a set up for just letting them come here.....
No our problem, sad, but it’s simply not
7
@There yes, it is. read the article; read our history in that region; think.
1
@There They are our neighbors. Like it or not, it is our problem.
1
@There You just don't get it, do you. It is our problem. Until conditions in these countries are improved so that people can experience "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", they will continue to flood across our southern border. Illegal immigration is a symptom. To stop it, one must cure the disease.
No, they can't all come here, I'm sorry. Think of another solution. We've got our own problems that need to be addressed.
This is probably wildly unrealistic, but could our government try harder to support countries to elect leaders that are not scoundrels or idiots? It seems like we are constantly having to explain after the fact why the US helped put some leader in place in a troubled country who then turned out to be a corrupt disaster for the citizens.
42
@Madeline Conant
The damage is done, the US has had it's foot on the neck of central america for decades. Of course the US is not completely to blame but we have interfered with legally elected governments one too many times, usually with the justification that the government is socialist.
As to your statement that they can't all come here, all across California there is a shortage of farm workers of all kinds, which means that the price farmers have to pay to retain workers has gone up, which means the prices of all agricultural goods will go up and small farms will fail as they struggle to finds hands to do the work. I have a small farm, it's to bad we don't have some sort of sponsorship program like Canada. I would sponsor a family like this in a heartbeat, I would gain a pair of wiling able hands to work, and the joy that comes from helping someone truly in need. I would do the same for an american if there was anyone who could do the work, but no, everyone wants to be a Kardashian, manual labor is looked down on in this country, we all lose for it.
27
@Madeline Conant
We do indeed have our own problems that need to be addressed, starting with coming to terms with the fact that we have created so many of those problems in the first place. The Americans I have known all my life who responded with generosity and concern have been pushed aside by those who respond with hatred and contempt.
I remember once when my mother realized that the old man she bought eggs from was too poor to keep himself warm at night, so she took a blanket from the closet and brought it to him.
Today we would deride that man as not willing to work hard enough to fend for himself (and is just waiting to get some free stuff). For all we can care he can just die, because "we've got our own problems that need to be addressed".
Tell me: how did we lose our hearts and souls?
17
@ESR
Why don't you apply to bring in temporary workers? They would return to their families and communities in their own countries when the agricultural season ends. Their earnings will buy more in their own countries.
Their families will be able to remain in their own communities, speaking their own language, and practicing their own culture.
When the agricultural season begins again, you could legally bring the workers back to work for you.
5
really important column. applies to european countries in the face if syrian migrants, to libyan and african migrants, to so many of the 68 million displaced and refugee people living in camps or in desperate conditions. by focusing on this family, taking the trouble to go to their home, to assessing their state, you make the argument real. roger, our own jewish grandparents, ancestors, managed to migrate, and we are able to now move about the world, and make these reports real. you deserve much credit for this solid work. i will post it, and hope others do the same.
6
Mr Cohen, consider this: first support building a wall, then begin multiple diplomatic efforts. Your anti-Trump prejudice is so obvious - did all these problems start just two years ago?
6
If Mr. Cohen had the funds to go to Mr. Pablo's home in Mexico, why couldn't he have given those funds to the man to return to his family too? Waiting on an American's couch with an ankle bracelet reserved for American criminals, was this the life here he envisioned? Go home and keep the family intact, not separated. There is indeed "something" there... a family, a home, food, animals, children, a wife...
Mr. Cohen only sees through his own eyes the "nothing" compared to his standards. To this reader, and seeing the young boy taken from his siblings and mother to a country where he is being schooled at 14 in 7th grade in a language not his own... this story doesn't end well.
Keep the family intact. The dry years will pass. No more babies! The father and elder son can work physically, yes day after day after day, for ... nothing. But the truth is, they will be worked the same way her, but for less in actuallity, and the separated family will pay the price. No way will they all be admitted here as "economic refugees." As this piece shows, there are simply too many more that will be encouraged to break up their families and follow in the wake.
Some economic troubles are best survived with your family, at home. Mr. Cohen ought to stop travelling the world to find poor people too; his constant internatonal jet-setting is contributing to the climate change that affects so many other lives. Stay home and work from there already!
5
@Midway
That is not what journalist do. They investigate. There are ethical issues with giving people money in situations such as this. It isn't so cut and dried.
8
@Midway
Your naivety is stunning, how simple to not see and not listen and so "American". People, since time an memorial only become immigrants when they cannot live, raise of family and thrive in their native region. There is really no other reason. We become part of the problem in our ignorance. This family like so many others, including yours, all want the same thing, freedom to live.
We can probably do more to help change this drastic dynamic on the ground in Guatemala and other central American countries, but that would take our Congress to work together to write some good Legislation and fund that Legislation. That would also involve people that know what could work and how to implement a plan. We would need a leader that is more intelligent and surrounded himself with competent and savvy advisers, than our current "tweeter".
All that we have now is an Executive and a Legislature that is enabling Roger Cohen's favorite duo of "fear and nationalism". This feeds red meat to his base but does nothing to actually resolve this problem.
5
A powerful critique and criticism of Trump foreign policy. Trump supports corrupt politicians. Corruption begets drug cartels. In effect Trump policy supports the narcos.
6
@John B Trump, Trump, always Trump. He must be the one who picked the apple from the forbidden tree
Thank you for writing this. We cannot stop unchecked migration when conditions in these countries offer no hope for a future. Fix the problem. Don't further damage or kill the people. But we have a president who does not value people, Americans or anyone else. All he cares about is himself and money. And his immigration master, Stephen Miller, is just as bad or worse. They both seem to relish their cruelty which is just sick.
4
Roger Cohen quotes a Guatemalan judge, who says that "Whatever the risks, whatever the attacks, I will do my work. It is a question of legality. It is also a question of honor.”
Honor. A word sorely in need of restoration in American life. We the people must restore honor to our own shores, at the polls, in November, 2020. Out with Trump. Out with Trump's dishonorable party.
15
Any US parent, in similar circumstances would migrate to another country to improve the life of their children.
The tenacity required , is a testament to the human spirit.
It is disgusting that the US is furthering the decline, through support of anti Democratic leaders and practice, in part to give trump a boogie man to “fight”.
We are sinking lower and lower.
11
Attention must be paid to Roger Cohen's words about the good Pablo family in Guatemala (and at our southern border with Mexico). Only by realizing why "there is nothing left" in Guatemala can we understand that climate warming -- considered laughable and a hoax by our ignorant and shameless president -- is the Earth's reason for countries
dying. Mr. Trump insists on keeping out immigrants from our border with a steel wall. Walls don't work.
After the end of WWII in 1945, Europe was in ruins. The American Marshall Plan saved and rebuilt so many countries, including a defeated Germany. Japan was allowed to keep their Emperor-God Hirohito, whose grandson Naruhito now sits on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Mankind had not yet begun to extinguish the planet with its inventions, chemicals, pollutants, industrial waste.
Cohen witnessed Guatemala today as a vast wasteland. Central America (Guatemala,El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico) desperately needs a Marshall Plan to recover from the ravages of the totalitarian and corrupt governments, and to help fight climate-warming which is clearly devastating the Northern Triangle countries and causing unending waves of migration to our southern border.
3
Mr. Pablo should simply ask for asylum from President Trump. This article alone makes the case for a direct line between Trumps actions and his need to flee. From climate change to political malpractice Guatemalan decline can be directly connected to President Trump's policies. Donald Trump is actuating a self fulfilling prophecy about this 'S' hole country. His prejudice spawned the policies that have helped to bring the prophecy to fulfillment.
5
An "adulticide" is a chemical substance which ingested, in even minute quantities, prevents the development of sexual maturity in the target population. Adulticides are widely deployed against mosquitos, have been for some years, suggesting that they are effective.
Without a doubt, there exist,"human adulticides." Will adulticides be brought to bear against burgeoning populations in the Global South, either through government or private initiative? The rise of this question is inevitable.
2
Thanks for this piece. It especially galls me that there are MANY communities in the USA that need workers. Such a waste to see so many sitting idle when all they want is to work and have a decent life. It would seem to me that the “right”, always complaining about the “freeloaders”, would welcome hard working able bodied men.
3
But we are often told by progressives how lousy the economy is. Which is it? We need workers desperately or the economy stinks?
4
If trump set aside some funding to give American companies incentives to build a factory in Guatemala, he could solve part of his immigration problem. There would be someplace for locals to earn a living and give them a reason to stay home.
But would that violate his america first policy?
Are those “good jobs” he would want to keep here?
Maybe this is why nothing he is doing for “regular “ people is working. He has no imagination. He has no experience governing. He has no focus other than on himself.
What can you say about that? No collusion?
First we eliminated Arbenz in the 50's under Eisenhower and at the behest of the Unite Fruit Company, then sponsored and supported the Mayan genocide under Reagan in the 80's and now we wonder why the country is in ruins, as described by Cohen, and the people are fleeing (those who can). The same can be said of Honduras and El Salvador. But in Honduras the political atrocity was under Obama and directed by Hilary Clinton. Yep, what goes around comes around.
5
Exactly how did Trump cause Guatemala’s problems, and why are they My responsibility?
6
@Pj Lit
Well you can re-read the article to understand how corrupt Trump's foreign policy has been. That doesn't mean we need to "fix" Guatemala or take in the world's poor, but is there any doubt that we can do much better when it comes to encouraging and supporting stable growth and justice?
2
It is popular to malign immigrants these days who come here for "economic" reasons as if they were unworthy. Yet, many, many of our ancestors came here for that very reason, i.e., for a better life.
Though we may not be able to accept all of them and may need to focus on those who face dangers other than hunger, it is courageous to make a perilous journey into the unknown in order to try to escape poverty and to help one's children to have a decent life.
Trump is a fool when he thinks that cutting off aid and building a wall is the solution. He (and his sycophants and followers) seem to think that we can build a barrier, then pretend that the world ends at it, that there is nothing and no one which matters on the other side. That is sad and delusional. People will still find ways to come in.
Beyond that, though, we are cutting off our nose to spite our face. This country needs immigrants - we always have, but it especially true now with our ageing population and low birthrate. The only answers which will ultimately work are reforming our immigration system (immigrant courts, asylum system, refugee processes, new immigrant integration etc. - not building walls) and doing what we can to help improve conditions in the nations which currrently seed these mass migrations. Most folks would prefer to stay in their native lands - IF those places were minimally safe and livable.
13
Unfortunately, what Roger Cohen describes is America's foreign policy in Latin America. It didn't begin with Trump, and was no better under Obama. Or Obama's predecessors.
This is who we are, and why so many of us look at U.S. intervention in Venezuela with disgust.
4
If you see the migrants the way Cohen does, as immigrants on their way to the land of immigrants, their rightful home, the USA, then, of course, all that follows in this article make perfect sense.
If you see these same people as Trump describes them, as outlaws, thugs, child abusers and rapists intent on doing great harm to the citizenry, there is only one solution: a wall and all that a wall entails: fortification against a virulently dangerous onslaught.
Our country is drifting, little by little, to the Trump analysis, not without some confirming evidence. When the first migrant is shot to death attempting the crossing, the die will have been cast. We will be officially a nation under siege. At war.
We are reaping what we have sown in our Central American backyard -- years of benign neglect interspersed with ill-advised neocon wars. And Trump has only made things worse. If he hadn't hijacked the Republican Party maybe responsible members of Congress would have been able to sit down together and work out comprehensive immigration reforms that would have alleviated the problem on our southern border before it got out of hand.
3
Guatemala needs women’s healthcare and family planning. Too many mouths and not enough resources. It is the humanitarian answer to much of the agony.
13
@Phyllis Mazik the ancient cultures practiced human sacrifice before the Spanish came .They knew the extent of sustenance of resources thousands of years ago. Today the third world countries are plaqued by over population.
3
Reading this article, I kept thinking: what will happen when climate change really bites and hundreds of millions of people must move north or die?
65
Hopefully our immigration law will accommodate them. It won't happen all at once. And we will need the workers.
1
@Russ Radicans
By then we will be so busy fending off the tropical migration of diseases and pestilence that we will no longer have time to respectfully bury the dead.
The melting permafrost is a Pandora's Box of trapped methane and long-buried bacteria. I wonder if Mike Pompeo thinks about this while stays up nights pondering the glories of the coming Northwest Passage.
If it is possible to educate our way out of this, we'd better get started. Sad to say, I'm losing hope in a peaceful solution.
5
Thank you for this column. Trump feeds the country with the bread and circuses of his antics, while in the dark, he is destroying everything the United States used to stand for.
Thanks also for mentioning that climate change is a major cause of immigration. We tend to think of climate change as the loss of some beachfront property as oceans rise; it goes much deeper than that, and the central African migration to Europe is also being driven, in large part, by the changes in their environment.
Thanks, finally, for identifying the war against indigenous people.
An important column.
120
@Susannah
Exactly. Recall that Pope Francis wrote an entire encyclical devoted to the consequences of climate change. He "gets it."
https://earthministry.org/advocacy/pope-francis-encyclical-on-the-environment/
3
@Susannah
The exodus of refugees from Syria into Europe was also a climate related catastrophe.
Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
History is repeating.
We have one chance to change it.
Vote
3
Roger,
You’ve written many excellent stories over the years I have been reading your work. This is one of the best and one of the most important. Thank you for directing our attention to those who are invisible and whose suffering our country has the power, but not the will, to alleviate.
3
Hindsight probably isn't worth much, but if only we had spent a fraction of what we poured down the ratholes of Afghanistan and Iraq into Central America, it would probably be a near-paradise by now. And unlike those countries, the Central American people would appreciate our help bringing them into the modern world. Many conservatives are not bad people. Why can't they see the humanity in these refugees from our near-neighbors, and why don't they want to help them improve their lives at home? America is great but not that great. These people would prefer to stay at home with their families if they could. Wouldn't you?
82
Consider this option:
1) there is significant and open lawlessness in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,
2) much of that lawlessness results in various forms of violence,
3) the local police is not able to control the lawlessness,
4) some forms of 'economic aid' have helped but they have been overwhelmed by social disorder,
5) the US govt or the UN approaches the govt of Guatemala with an offer of their military replacing local police to restore and maintain social order.
1
The current U.S. administration is a moral cesspool.
10
Excellent, tragic. Thank you, Roger Cohen.
6
This piece excellently and thoroughly describes why Trump and the Republican's view on immigration is doomed to fail not only the U.S., but all involved countries. At issue is the America First mindset that speaks only of "me - what's in it for me, how will I benefit/be hurt" and completely ignores the inhumanity and root causes of migration. Perhaps if we - and this 'we' refers to the West/First-World, not just the U.S. - were to pull our heads out of the sand and look at the causes of migration and address these, we could improve the lives of others, eliminating the need and drive to migrate to countries perceived as being safer and as providing more opportunity.
Placing gauze on the floor to keep the blood from an arterial bleed from ruining one's shoes rarely saves the patient or the surgeon's shoes.
4
As the climate continues to change, millions all over the world will seek to emigrate from homelands that lack the resources to adapt. And nations will build walls to keep them out. And the walls by themselves won't be enough. Soon there will be guard towers with machine guns, and mine fields. But even if that keeps refugees out, it won't stop droughts and violent storms on our side of the border.
This is either the background for another bad sci-fi movie, or a glimpse into the future. Both, probably.
Why are we responsible for helping Central America? For one thing, because for so many years, any thug who called himself anti-communist was our guy. Because our demand for drugs has created so much corruption. Because if we don't, we'll be faced with a migration crisis that makes today's seem trivial.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump spreads disinformation about the nature of the immigration problem with his talk of gangsters and rapists, and encourages the fossil fuel consumption that worsens the climate emergency. And the Republican party continues to support him.
12
@writeon1 - Bingo! Excellent! Thanks!
3
Mr.Cohen, thank you for taking this journey and telling us the story of Rigoberto Pablo and his son.It is a heartbreaking narrative.I always wonder what the Organization of American States does.They have an impressive website.Why is it not possible for the members of this organization to mobilize to use diplomacy to alter the murderous policies of Guatemala and Honduras.Several presidents worked to modify the drug war in Colombia and had success.Trump’s cutting off funds is not a solution-he screams when these refugees come to the American border-how about putting some effort into solving the conditions which force the immigrants to leave their dangerous countries.
10
“Already, the 460,294 migrants apprehended at the southern border this year outnumber those for all of 2018. Since October, 1 percent of Guatemala’s total population — more than 160,000 people have crossed.”
Roger Cohen brings an important story to light.
The question of why so many destitute people would leave their homeland and face a dangerous journey into an unknown fate is one that should be confronted by all of us who have not known such desperation.
Our official response to asylum seekers like this man and his son, is bad policy, ironically put forward by men and women who claim to be pro life. The way Donald Trump describes them is sickening. He dehumanizes them so easily and gets agreement from those who seek simple answers to complex issues.
Those of us who want a more sensible and humane way to respond to this humanitarian crisis have to work to change the personnel running this government. This is not right and most of us know it.
12
@MG
Why not consider some of the good ideas offered by other commenters here that promote democracy in Central and South America in the mode of a Marshall Plan?
We are spending wildly on policies that don’t work, it’s time for changing our approach. This is our nation’s backyard, after all. Think of as investing in our own interest.
Again, we need new leadership. Donald Trump’s administration is a dangerous failure.
4
@me
I don’t but will listen if you have a plan to eliminate that suffering.
4
I’m tired of being told that we should just have totally open borders and that I should be responsible for the financial support of people here illegally. I have great empathy for families who want to come here for a better life. I have little empathy for the problems that arise because they break US law to come here illegally. We need a rational and fair immigration system that Congress won’t subsequently fight to ignore.
8
@Once From Rome
There was a bipartisan immigration overhaul bill in 2013 (?) that McConnell would not bring to the floor of the Senate, so it died, strangled by the Grim Reaper otherwise known as the Senate Majority Leader. He is as much to blame for the present situation as anyone.
If you have any family or friends in Kentucky, encourage - no implore - them not to re-elect McConnell next year. As the self-proclaimed Grim Reaper, he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of three children, maybe more that we haven't learned of yet.
McConnell allows and encourages this mess through inaction and supports Trump in all things. Shame on him.
7
Thank you for taking the time and delving deeply to find the truth buried under an avalanche of propaganda political noise. Your work is invaluable.
10
Thank you for this reporting and a fine piece of writing. Guatemala is truly one of the most beautiful and most sad places on earth. Our direct responsibility for its sadness can be traced back through the last century. The additional stressor of climate change will only increase the struggle of its people.
Only about six years ago, hope for the restoration of the rule of law in Guatemala was real. Now that restoration is only a dying dream.
8
Another superb article from Mr Cohen. I despair that our government will not see this as a humanitarian crisis, in part of our own making, which we are morally obligated to help to fix. Instead Trump is rattling sabers with Iran, no doubt eager to create a new humanitarian catastrophe.
9
Thank you for writing this insightful piece, Mr.Cohen. It reminds me of the importance of diplomacy and compassion in dealing with our neighbors. The necessity of visiting these countries and experiencing their lives.
And of the integrity of independent journalists like you.
8
I hope the next president will work with Central America to help develop work possibilities and a safe life there.
4
If our problems were simply the result of this President they would be solvable, but they are part and parcel of our Western superiority complex. We are at the top of the heap in our corner of the world and cannot be bothered if it isn't handed down through our masters in Washington.
This is repeated wherever men rule and men rule throughout the world.
4
"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Doubtless, these words need revision for the Trump era and for his frightened supporters.
6
This breaks my heart. Thank you for keeping stories like this front and center for the American public.
12
America cannot solve Guatemala's social, economic, and political problems short invasion, occupation, and military rule on the McArthur WWII model.
America can enforce its immigration laws if and when enough politicians in Congress perceive that it is in their own political interest to do so.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to make the case that the USA has a moral responsibility to admit Guatemalan immigrants to this country on the grounds that their government is failing its citizens. Such governments exist everywhere.
12
@Roy Rogers The USA does have a moral responsibility to either admit Guatemalan immigrants or find a way to help its marginalized citizens.
The USA is responsible for Guatemala’s state of affairs due to the CIA deposing the democratically elected President in 1954.
If we as a country are serious and honest about democracy and the rule of law, we must make amends for this serious transgression.
13
My understanding of history informs me that one of the primary causes for the foundation and growth of the now-United States' was precisely as a refuge from economically and politically failed states!!
We also have a moral responsibility as a wealthy society to to help the unfortunate -- wherever we find them, but especially our neighbors.
8
England was not a politically failed state in 1776.
4
A powerful, powerful piece of writing. A simple, true narrative. Heartbreaking.
21
In another column by someone else and by a commenter there: "If you think about it, most of our big problems as a country can be traced to Republican policies, incompetence, and/or deceit." Deceit and corruption are the two pillars of the modern GOP in the works for decades now.
I believe that a 'Marshall Plan' for Central America would go a long ways to solving the immigrant problem from those countries. Biden has suggested such an approach while Trump is going in the opposite direction. Warren is proposing to tackle corruption in the US.
Whatever: A massive correction in our political system is now an urgent matter. A great column by Mr Cohen. Thank you.
25
@me
Yes we CAN pay for it. We have lots of money--but it gets squandered: MIC private "contractors, an overextended empire with 800+ bases everywhere on the planet, etc. The Marshall Plan should be our best "weapon" against a dysfunctional, corrupt Central America. I realize slashing the MIC budget by half would deplete the profiteering stock portfolios of Congress & other 5%percenters, but blood money is always immoral.
1
We must address the demand for drugs in the U.S. Our consumption here (whether by choice or from addiction) fuels misery and violence in poor countries to our south. We can do something about that part here, within our own borders.
8
@klr
While that may be true, this crisis stems from several causes: a corrupt government, climate change, racism (the indigenous people) by both their government and our own, and our own callous disregard for human rights at the border.
1
Outstanding reporting. This story illustrates, in heartbreaking detail, the unfolding crisis in all of its multifaceted complexity. The escalating climate catastrophe, the related rise of nationalism, and the resulting refugee crisis. Thank you, Roger Cohen, for this illuminating work.
34
Thank you Mr. Cohen for this detailed, sympathetic study of the situation in Guatemala and or lost immigration policies.
I see it in the same light, exactly.
We human beings are head-strong and determined and we will never stop trying to better our lives and the lives of our families, nor should we. We have an obligation to the human rights of each other, to help where we can.
My 15 years in Venezuela, and citizenship, opened my eyes and my heart to the reality of our shared humanity and our obligations to each other, regardless of skin coloration.
All of this cynical, hypocritical appropriation of the immigration issue, without even trying to make any real changes to the laws, without putting teeth into e-verify, is nothing but vane, selfish political posturing that helps no one and only complicates the problem even more.
It does not require a phd to realize that we, the United States of America, could take a wholly different positive role in Central America by actually helping them to clean up their governments, to help educate, to build business there by encouraging our labor-intensive industries to invest there for low-cost assembly plants, to get the narcos under control, and on and on. Without a change in vision and true positive involvement it will never change- just more nada, and more long lines and caravans of despairing but hopeful people, who but for a fortunate accident of birth would be you and I.
31
Mr Cohen and most comments want immigration law reform. None of them suggest what reforms should be made. I really can't think of any reforms that could stop this huge immigration stream.
2
@drdhesq - You criticize that the columnist and commenters have not suggested "what forms should be made". Did you not read the entire piece?
It was put quite succinctly - "Trump's America has gone AWOL"
What about the lack of support for the UN-backed "International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or Cicig". Instead Trump listens to lobbyists for the corrupt Guatemalan government who
want Cicig to be booted from the country.
There was also the suggestion of the US offering a Marshall Plan form of help to the entire region to help re-establish governments, the rule of law and an economy to support local jobs. That way people would not have to risk the hazards of trying to immigrate to the US. Given the central role the US has historically played in undermining civil society in those countries, it is the right thing to do for many reasons.
The piece also pointed out the role of climate change which is eliminating agriculture as a form of employment by making the land unproductive. We know the Trump government's policy on that.
Individually, people can lobby their political representatives to support reforms as well as contributing to efforts to bring some compassion to the agonizing human needs on the US border.
I suggest you re-read the entire column.
4
@drdhesq
This isn't about a "huge immigration stream." Not about "immigration law reforms." Try Central American peoples' desperation; and a way to help sweep out the corruption and give hope to citizens who need and deserve better lives. Reread Mr. Cohen's piece, this time without adjusting its sense to your way of thinking.
1
Outstanding reporting, and deeply disturbing.
31
I only have one change to Mr Cohen's extraordinarily brave, excruciating piece: Trump’s America is not betraying itself, Trump's America is destroying the fabric of our country, and spreading their contagion worldwide - exactly as it planned in November 2016.
45
A Republican Senator complaining about State Department interference in Guatemala's democracy is more than just odd, it's self-defeating. This is what happens when U.S. foreign policy becomes a TV reality show, played out live on Fox News.
34
@Portola Thank you for your clear and exact analysis. The policy of Trump and the OLD guard, a.k.a. the Republican Party, is beyond despicable, and the hypocrisy of so many Americans urges one to vomit until thee is nothing left to offer up.
The daily grind of nasty, lying, cheating, and disgusting behavior shocks the system and leaves one wondering how much more can this world endure.
Let's see just how many Americans truly care about this country, the world, our plant, one another to stop Trump from this nightmare he has delivered. I wonder.
4
This brought vivid memories of my visit to the same region 10 years ago while on a UN mission to review MDGs. As a veteran of this process, it was devastating to witness the calamity of incredible neglect by the authorities. What broke my heart on the 9 hour trip to the airport at dawn, was seeing young children walking to school along extremely treacherous roads. The driver told me that the school day is broken up in several level sessions to cope because of lack of facilities.
14
Our country has been in need of bi-partisan immigration legislation for many, many years. The current makeup of Congress cannot do it. Now, the situation seems ad hoc in the extreme. We need laws and processes we all understand and rest of the world, also.
3
Very good. The pen is mightier than the sword, it just takes a bit of time.
21
Thank you for going to Guatemala and visiting the immigrants family to learn what and who he left behind. And thank you for painting the larger picture of a country being pulled back into lawlessness. Given that they might release from prison those convicted of crimes against indigenous villagers, one wonders if people are leaving out of fear of retribution as well. But the larger point is well taken. These are our precious friends and neighbors. One cannot conceive of policies toward them that are worse than Trump's.
72
@Sherry
You need to reread the article, as I think you missed the point. "Count your blessings gringos. There are many places much much worse than Trump's America" is the message the author was conveying in his travels and talks. Do you want to trade places with them? Give up some of your own largess to help house and bring his full family in?
3
Good points made about the Trump administration's unhinged policy toward the Central American countries, which actually impels more migration rather than less. Yet, in spite of this, this article has a few problems. Cohen seems to have parachuted himself into a part of the world he knows nothing about (his world being generally the boulevards of Paris). The brown hills he goes on about are most likely the result of his being in Guatemala at the end of the dry season before the rainy season begins, yet he doesn't know this apparently. Also, let us consider for a moment the headline "There is nothing." Many hundreds of millions of people in the world live in places where there is "nothing." The simple fact is that neither the United States or Europe can afford to host all of the people who would like to improve their lives by moving to a rich country. It simply can't be done as much as we might wish to help. The best solution is to try to improve lives there in those countries.
18
@Lotzapappa I agree that the best solution is to try to improve lives there, but Trump's policies (as Cohen clearly notes) are designed to make lives worse, not better for the Guatemalan people. It's a feature, not a bug of his policies. As for the dry conditions and the dead coffee trees, they are the result of not one dry season, but of a years long drought. Remember climate change?
19
@Lotzapappa
Agreed, we could/should be spending our DoD moneys upon help/aid/prevention rather than adventurism and saber rattling that just produces more anti-'merican sentiment; and war/chaos profits.
As for the drought... this is a story from '14, when it was already an historical record long drought. 5 yrs. later it hasn't abated. Climate Change.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guatemala-declares-emergency-over-central-american-drought-n189146
catholicphilly.com/2019/03/news/national-news/guatemalans-hit-by-three-years-of-drought-among-those-crs-rice-bowl-helps/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/drought-climate-change-force-guatemalans-migrate-to-us/
6
Apparently you know nothing about the drought.
4
Let’s use the billions being demanded for walls and for other idiotic ideas to create opportunities for the global poor. The majority of who will then be able to provide a descent and safe future for their children. This will stop them from taking their loved ones on dangerous treks across continents.
My parents (especially my mother) would have stayed in Portugal to be near their families rather than immigrate. At 41 they started over in a foreign land with an unknown language because they believed their daughters would have better opportunities here. In the 1960’s Portugal, my sister and I would have been lucky if we completed 4th grade. And careers? Our choices would have been farm or factory workers. Here we were able to study to become a teacher and a nurse.
Even with the few opportunities Portugal offered us, my sister and I would have been better off than today’s poor. The Salazar regime was bad but nowhere near as bad as recent dictatorships. Nor did we have to deal with the violence related to wars and drug trafficking as do the immigrants showing up at European and American borders.
Let's put some of those billions into drug treatment. Without the demand here, violence in Central America might decrease.
Let’s stop starting wars. Then people won’t have to flee their homelands.
And let’s not forget that the problems we are now facing are vestiges of the colonial and cold war eras. It is our responsibility to help resolve them and walls won’t do that.
79
@M. Natália Clemente Vieira
Did your parents immigrate here legally or illegally? If legally, then indeed they gave you a solid foundation to build on...
There is a huge difference. This child can never qualify as a "Dreamer" -- he knows he was brought here illegally, smuggled in without papers.
4
@Midway
My point is that if people had better options, the number coming here would diminish. It is not whether we came here legally or not.
FYI:
My grandparents came from different parts of Portugal in 1910. They met and married here. In 1920, they left with 3 Americans; all under age 4. My uncle returned in 1952 to give his family a better life.
In 1953 my father, who was born in Portugal, registered at the US embassy to be put on a waiting list for an immigration visa. Only 503 Portuguese per year were allowed to immigrate here under the quota system set up by the Immigration Law of 1924. This limited the number of Southern Europeans and other undesirables from entering legally.
In a 1962 letter, my father was advised by the US embassy that due to recent law revisions, he qualified for a “nonquota immigrant visa.” Who knows if my father would have made it here if no revisions had been made to the law?
And no I don’t think that my father ever thought of coming here illegally. He would have been afraid of doing so. However he had options. He left us to work in Angola for several years. He had a cousin willing to help him immigrate to Argentina.
What options do those coming here now have? They can stay to face dangerous futures or they can try to get on an immigration visa waiting list. How long will that take? And the cost? We just paid $540 to renew my mother’s green card.
SEE:
uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/87/885.pdf
historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078
1
That these people want a better life is totally understandable. But if we open our doors hundreds of thousands maybe millions will come. That would be a disaster. What are we going to do with thousands of semi-literate young men and women? They must first all be educated to find jobs in a modern society. A new technological revolution will make these new migrants even less likely to find work opportunities. Most if not all illegal immigrants pass through many safe countries to come to the U.S. According to international law a person can only claim refugee status in the first safe country they find themselves in. We've somehow arrived at a point where only the migrants have rights, we have no right to regulate our borders, to prepare for a future with fewer low-wage jobs instead of letting in a huge workforce of young people increasing competition for those jobs. Why is the only answer, that they have an unrestricted right to come to the U.S.? The more we take in, the easier we make it, the more will try to get here. It is a impossible equation. Too many people believe they have prescribed right to gatecrash Europe & the U.S.– endlessly, regardless of where they come from, regardless of the laws, & regardless of the reality that we can't accommodate all of them. They're country shopping for the best benefits, the treaties & conventions made decades ago that were never meant to facilitate the transfer of huge swaths of one continent to another. We need immigration reform now!
31
@Bill Brown
Therefore the portion of the article that talks about helping to make improvements in the countries themselves rather than cutting off US aid, which is rather like cutting off our collective nose to spite our face.
21
@lhbari But is it our total responsibility? Isn't this what we have the UN for? If we invest 20 billion dollars it will take a decade to see if it works. If it doesn't then what? There's absolutely no guarantee it will work. Throwing money at a problem doesn't always solve evrything as we saw in Iraq.
16
@Bill Brown
Not our totally responsibility, but we can and should help. We are reaping a goodly number of the consequences. Unfortunately our current president doesn't believe in either foreign aid or working with international organizations.
5
@Prof
Thanks, Prof, for the correction on the indigenous idiomas guatemaltecas.
A friend works in a detention center for undocumented individuals who are minors. Many do not speak Spanish.
I don't think the average American understands the plight of indigenous Central Americans who flee their native land.
In other words, western Indians don't leave what has been their home for thousands of years on their own volition unless things are really bad.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, besides keeping an office which is a sinkhole of depravity, is also a comedian and a comedic actor.
In this country, it would be as if Jerry Seinfeld were elected president. But hey, that would be a lot better than the reality television star we have now.
39
@Wordsworth from Wadsworth
In many refugee areas in the Midwest, the women qualify for social work assisting with the language/social service processing with newcomers who do not speak the language. Here, if they don't speak Spanish, we will need to hire some of each who can help communicate with their people. Like the Hmong women hired as government workers in Minnesota. Or the Somalias. Of course, these were war refugees, not just economic refugees so there was an incentive to find them government work.
2
@Midway
So "just economic refugees?" Do you mean like Rigoberto Pablo?
I wish my American family and friends would spread this article, as they are already painfully aware of the USA’s terrible image of decline and moral failings. In Europe we are facing the same unavoidable surge of illegal immigration. It is time so called advanced democracies grasp the basic reality: as long as their corruption plagued, economically broken countries will receive no comprehensive assistance, more and more desperate people - our kin- will try to push their kids in our societies. I’d do the same
22
@Condo
The children will have it the worst.
Unless they are adopted into American homes, they will never be be fully American and will resent being brought in for household wages and laborers to Americans who can afford to buy members of the family to bring in, while the rest remains at home accepting payments.
"Do You Understand?" At least on the plantations, the property owners had an incentive to grow their investments. Not here. Too many replacements available, as Cohen's work today shows us... There are your Dreamers, of today and tomorrow, and your as-of-yet unexploited labor supply too. (Imagine if the African slaves had been forced to pay the costs of their passage.)
1
"Meanwhile the state is failing to provide its people with basic food, health care, education and protection from narco-violence."
And meanwhile, here in the United States, the state is failing to provide its people with basic food, health care, education and protection from gun violence. Reading this column gave me an eerie twilight zone feeling of seeing all to clearly the dismal direction our own country is being driven. Corruption? Dwindling opportunity? Increasing inequality? Definitely. And the official quiet acceptance of the murder and dismemberment of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Kashoggi...now business as usual.
We're a Banana Republic in the making, with a huge dose of unacknowledged and unprepared for Climate Chaos thrown in. Just vote and do whatever good we as individuals can, long as we can...
128
@JessiePearl
Build that wall! More technology to track, and faster deportation hearings. Send the message south: America cannot and will not absorb the social costs of these split-up families with overwhelming economic needs that cannot be met by the state.
The drought will end in their home countries. Those are rich and beautiful places of natural traditions. Go home and work out the family and economic problems there. Try to sen one member of the family legally... start learning English now, and bring a skill or trade too. Keep praying and stay together!
3
@Midway
The United States bears considerable responsibility for the corruption and poverty that are driving desperate Central Americans to flee their homes. There was the CIA engineered coup in Guatemala in 1954 that replaced the democratically elected president Arbenz with a corrupt military regime. In the 1970's during the disastrous civil war in El Salvador,the U.S. poured billions in military aid into supporting a brutal regime responsible for death squads that terrorized the population, including the massacre of the entire village of El Mozote by the Salvadoran army. 70,000 died, and half the population was displaced. In Guatemalan genocide, in the early '80's with the support of the U.S., paramilitary death squads targeting indigenous communities murdered 200,000 ,including 40,000 . And now we are supporting the corrupt Morales regime that is failing to provide even the most basic needs for the population.
What is needed is not bluster or threats, but as Mr. Cohen suggests, multilateral diplomacy, and steps to improve economic development, fight corruption and drug trafficking, and restore the rule of law in Central America. Until that day, desperate people will continue to flee. Wouldn't we do the same for our children?
7
@JessiePearl
I remember hearing Noam Chomsky give a speech in the 90s called 'Bringing the Third World Home' (i.e. political and business elites deliberately importing the economic/social model of inequality, low taxes, no social programs, deregulation, etc. to the United States).
Sadly, it seems he was all too prescient.
5
Movement is life. And these people are genetic cousins, and descendants, of the vast numbers of Native Americans that were nearly exterminated in US territory. Poetic Justice, I say.
23
Any attempts to give these people temporary shelter must include an end to the sanctuary city policies. We have to know who is here. We have to know who the potential threats to our families are.
How many American families have been torn apart by central American and Mexican drugs?
15
@caveman007
Drugs come to the USA because there is demand for them here. The majority of "potential threats to our families" originate right here: guns, domestic abuse, poverty, suicide, lack of healthcare...We must look at and to ourselves for answers. The President of our country does not pay personal income taxes and many successful corporations pay no corporate tax. Please, if we are to stop giving sanctuary to refugees then let's stop giving it to Trump, the rich and corporations as well.
3
@caveman007 If Americans would stop using drugs the "narcos" would stop bringing them. Basic economics; no demand, no supply. Don't blame Mexicans, Hondurans, etc. for our failings.
3
@caveman007 Rather, how many Central American families have been torn apart by North Americans' appetite for drugs?
2
Thank you, Roger, for once again writing a well-researched, compassionate, and thoughtful opinion piece for this newspaper. I hope you will make the rounds of the main news shows to highlight the profound connection between climate change, political lawlessness, and our border immigration problem. Donald Trump and his Republican Party have taken the issue of immigration to a catastrophic new low, but the truth is that--with the shining exception of Jimmy Carter--American policy towards Central America has been almost entirely in service to reactionary elements in both American business and the countries of the region for many, many decades. Democrats are implicated as well. Before her murder in her native Honduras, environmentalist and human rights activist Berta Caceres made a point of identifying Hillary Clinton's disgraceful support of the 2009 coup as one of the prime causes of her country's misery.
Let the Congressional investigations already underway keep the pressure on Donald Trump's obvious political crimes. The Democrats should now stand up and teach the country a history lesson about his and other American leaders' awful legacy of support for right-wing dictatorships throughout Latin America (a habit that has become flat-out obscene under Trump and Bolton) and the catastrophic effects of climate change on those countries that we have been ignoring while more precious decades are lost. That's the way to use the immigration crisis.
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@Citizen Bill
It's wishful thinking to expect the Democrats to stand up and teach the country a history lesson about U.S. support of right-wing dictatorships throughout Latin America. Not when that has been U.S. policy for decades (maybe even almost 2 centuries, since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823). Not when--as you mentioned--leading Democrats like Hillary Clinton have supported right-wing coups.
5
It is misleading to suggest even implicitly that Trump's benighted policy toward Guatemala somehow represents a new page in the American playbook. In 1954 the CIA, at the behest of the United Fruit Company, deposed Guatemala's progressive democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz. Because he had socialist leanings that favored government programs helpful to the poor, it was easy for the CIA to justify its action as necessary to make the world safe from "communists."
The CIA coup resulted in the installation of a corrupt military-backed dictatorship. Despite occasional hesitant moves toward more publicly responsive regimes, the military has never been dislodged from power and a succession of repressive authoritarian regimes with at least tacit US support has been the rule. Unlike Mexico, Guatemala never successfully developed a mixed race society, a fact which has provided the dominant right-wing regimes with a reliable power base among wealthy white landholders. As a consequence, the various Mayan indigenous groups in Guatemala have been systematically oppressed on an ongoing basis since the CIA coup.
While Trump may well be more blatantly and opportunistically vicious toward the indigenous Guatemalans than his recent predecessors, no American government has ever seriously undertaken to rectify the damage done in 1954. So the reality is that Trump is not some sort of unworthy outlier; rather he is building on 65 years of historic US policy.
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@woofer
So the reality is that Trump is not some sort of unworthy outlier; rather he is building on 65 years of historic US policy
------------
Keep going...
Who got rich, who benefitted from those government overthrows? Global international companies. Some who took their own families in country, took wealth out of the country, and left no viable businesses behind. In many places, the environment was poisoned by international corporations, so there was worse than "nothing" left behind.
In a drought, people who live close to the land suffer. In good times, families prosper. It is nature's cycle. Family planning, education help, but in the end, man must build with the tools he has at hand. Here in America, this man is shackled and confined to a couch, no work allowed. His family, back home, needs him, his presence.
This is not how immigration should work, this is not healthy for the sending or receiving countries, and the family -- look everyone! is split up, by choice not by Donald Trump, on other sides of borders...
Someone benefitted, took the dollars after the democratic governments were overthrown and fled. Are those same people the ones helping to undercut US labor laws today???
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@woofer Thank you for reminding readers of the long sad history of the United States support of corrupt military backed dictatorships in Central America, and the CIA coup that ousted the democratically elected Arbenz that ushered in decades of corrupt regimes. In El Salvador, during the disastrous civil war that left 70,000 dead and displaced half the population, the United States poured billions in military aid in support of the brutal Salvadoran military that committed atrocities like the massacre of the entire village of El Mozote.
The United States bears considerable responsibility for current conditions of corruption and poverty that are driving desperate people to flee and seek a better life for their children. Instead of wasting billions on a wall, what is needed is a Marshall Plan for Central America to provide the economic development that will enable people to remain and prosper in their homes.
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@woofer
Excellent historical distillation and analysis of Guatemalan decline. But, unfortunately, you are one of the few who are familiar with history and this goes all the way to Trump and his cronies. I am not sure which is worse, not knowing history or knowing but ignoring the past. Either way, not much in the way of hope.
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A good article. Perhaps it is also worth making one on Honduras? All of the migrant caravans have started in Honduras. Why?
Honduras had elections in 2017, and the results were rejected by the left-wing opposition for being unfair and probably rigged. The current President is probably illegitimate, as in really stuffed the ballot illegitimate. Yet America supported him, and still supports him. You see, he’s a right-winger. He moved Guatemala’s embassy to Jerusalem, to no benefit to his country, that’s how friendly we are with the current government.
Compare that to the Administration’s beef with leftist Ortega in Nicaragua. No doubt, Ortega is bad, just like Maduro, but when the criticism comes from the same America who accepted his neighbor stealing an election, it doesn’t hold much weight does it?
The US has routinely fed Central America’s worst impulses, either voluntarily (committing coups, accepting and supporting coups, amongst many others), or involuntarily (our never-ending thirst for drugs), and now we’re being irritated by the flames that we helped ignite.
If these people can’t all come here—and they cannot, it is politically, societally, and logistically not feasible—how about America starts doing some good over there (with real, significant and measured aid not filtered through their inept local strongmen), or at least stops doing bad?
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Correction: He wants to move Honduras’ embassy to Jerusalem, and has declared it Israel’s capital.
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"Here there is nothing." That pretty much describes the social and economic situation for fully 70% of the world's population. There are already over 7 billion of us soon there will be 9 billion. Our population growth is the biggest threat to the environment, social stability and world peace.
Climate change and increasing numbers of nothing to lose migrants empowered by cell phones providing them a path to their next best opportunity migrants are a result of the population explosion.
Until we recognize that is the core problem we are in big trouble.
Even after we recognize unchecked population growth is the core problem we are still in big trouble.
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I appreciate the sentiment of your post, but the fact is that increases in consumption are a bigger contributor to environmental degradation, social instability, and conflict than population growth. Rises in greenhouse gas concentration and attendant climate change are linked directly to natural resource consumption rates. While population growth matters, it simply isn't the biggest factor and hasn't been for decades.
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@J
The problem is human nature. The people being added to the population are not migrating to countries with low carbon footprints. They are migrating to countries with the largest carbon footprints. Everybody wants to live large. That is why we need less people.
7
Unfortunately, the USA can not take in all of the poor people of the world.
If we don't bring this economic migration situation under control......it's going to spiral out of control.
Or am I missing something here?
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@Kenneth Johnson
If we put some effort into improving life in these Central American countries, we'll be dealing less with mass immigration into the U.S.
It's the right way to go, for everyone involved.
And it would be cheaper.
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@atutu -- "If we put some effort into improving life in these Central American countries"
We put a lot of effort into breaking these countries. The US has for a century and more been a big part of the problem, and that very much has continued for the last couple of decades without a break.
We can't go around the world fixing every place. But we can stop breaking them. We can let up on some of the things we do to damage them.
It is a long and complex story, a little different for each of the countries in the region. But what remains the same is the damage done.
20
Exactly. Stem the problem there for a quarter of the cost and it doesn’t become a problem north of the border. Oh and it’s the humane thing to do.
2
Thank you for this article. May many read it.
The bigoted, corrupt, incompetent and overwhelmingly destructive Trump administration and its enablers (mainly Republicans) are especially bad, but as indicated here part of a long history - of patronizing, colonial, self serving US policy in Central and South America from greedy, destructive US corporations raping the land and its peoples, to training right wing paramilitary and military death squads at the School of the Americas to the Iran-Contra scandal and on and on.
In the case of corrupt and destructive left wing leader Maduro of Venezuela, US policy has made the situation much worse. According to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot, "Thousands have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, ... U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality."
To significantly contribute to people's desperation in places like Guatemala and then to oppress them at the border is evil.
Let's support good people like Mr. Pablo and his family. Let's support people in the US State Department trying to do the right thing. Let's support Gloria Porras, one of the five justices on the Guatemalan Constitutional Court, a woman of courage speaking the truth whose life is under threat from the corrupt president of Guatemala Jimmy Morales.
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@johnpthom'
Open your wallets and give to your faith communities working as missionaries in these regions, readers.
This is not an American government problem to solve, really. NO marshall plan, no rebuilding wars, no open borders.
There are families like this in economic crisis in America too. I dare Mr. Cohen to go into those areas here at home to cover them. I doubt he would be welcomed into the home as a white savior, though, as he no doubt was for this story...
2
Why does the US have to be the solution for all people who are unwilling to take their fates into their own hands? Who is stopping the indigenous Guatamalan people from working together to better their own lot? Why is it that they somehow know how to make baby after baby, and have both a 5 year old and a 19 year old by the time they are 37( plus everything in between) and can organize the $5,000 it takes to sneak into the US, but they cannot organize themselves to make improvements where they come from? And who would even end $5,000 to people with zero prospect for paying it back -- people who earn $8 a day? Indeed how did 450,000 people in just these last few months manage to cough up five grand each in order to escape 'poverty' and pay off the coyotes? is there a bank somewhere ere in Guatemala or Honduras with a bottomless supply of cold cash to lend to such high risk applicants?And why the US? Why not a neighboring country where things are better, or Mexico where at least they can speak the language? Yes, I have a lot of questions that Mr. Cohen seems unable to ask himself.
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@JJ Gross
Try getting something done in an extended drought, with no economic movement on the horizon, and when the next step is clogged with armed people looking for things to steal.
Including the authorities in charge of upholding the laws..........
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@JJ Gross: "Who is stopping the indigenous Guatemalan people from working together to better their own lot?" Their corrupt leaders, that's who- and the police and the military who've got all the guns and are at their government's beck and call. "And why the U.S.?" That's a much better question and one that I've been asking myself for quite some time. Mexico is right there and so is Belize. Are any of those desperate Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans migrating to those Spanish-speaking nations next door to their own? Or heading south- to Costa Rica, Panama or Colombia? Some obviously have relatives already in the U.S. but as for the rest of them why are they intent on coming here given the welcome that they're likely to receive from Trump and his xenophobic base?
16
If you go to Costa Rica, you will find thousands of Nicaraguans and other Central Americans working. So yes, many of them go to other countries too, not just the USA. The US is the biggest draw because we have the greatest economic need for migrants, and have the most jobs and work to offer. And until recently, we had the decency to welcome immigrants who simply want to improve their lot in life.
18
Foreign is a minuscule portion of our budget. It’s a very little money that goes a long way. Contract one fewer aircraft carriers and we would likely have all the money needed.
15
@Mercury S - And stop handing out windfall tax cuts to the already bloated, greedy pluto-corporatocracy.
4
Excellent article, and (as always) very well-told story. But I have a bone to pick with this phrase: "he and his family speak the Mam dialect and Spanish."
Mam is a LANGUAGE, not a dialect. Mam is no more similar to, say, the K'iche' LANGUAGE or the Q'anjob'al LANGUAGE than Spanish is to French or Italian. Nor are they mutually intelligible.
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@Prof "A language is a dialect with an army"-- said all my linguistics professors at the University of Michigan
2
The plight of Central Americans is sad. But as an American, my primary obligation is to help US citizens who are also struggling. So it’s best we stop being a release valve for the surplus population being generated in Central America.
If we let all these desperate migrants into the US they’ll overburden our schools, hospitals, welfare programs, and infrastructure that is already being strained. Working and lower class communities will bear the brunt of accommodating these migrants as they will not be settled in places like Chappaqua or Beverly Hills. Also, at a time when people are proposing $15 minimum wages, it doesn’t make sense to import a bunch of desperate people willing to be exploited for $5 an hour.
If Mr. Cohen really wants to help a desperate Guatemalan family or two, he can let them stay in a spare room in his house as well as cover their financial needs until things improve.
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@M. Gessbergwitz You are missing Mr. Cohen's point: it is in the interest of the United States to take steps to improve the situation in Central America instead of encouraging corrupt leaders because nothing can stop people who are this desperate from leaving and coming over here.
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That is simply not true. Study after study has shown that immigrants are not a burden on social programs. And it is naive in the extreme to think that the US has not had any role in creating the conditions that lead Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadoreans to want to come to the US.
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@J
Study after study has shown that immigrants are not a burden on social programs.
-------------
Define "social program".
Are public school districts that are supported by the property taxes working people pay considered "social programs"?
How many students can school districts absorb without cutting from the programs they have already budgeted to provide? How much does one ESOL (english as a second language) teachers cost per school year, and how many children can be assigned to her? Does the school district have enough bilingual administrative staff to educate the newcomers to the policies and procedures of the American education system?
I wish the costs were limited to filling out some forms, and transferring a new student in. They're not. Somebody is paying already. It's likely those Americans on the lower economic levels, who welcome the newcomers to their communities.
Why couldn't Mr. Cohen file this transplant story from closer to his home, do you think?
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'No wall will stop the flow of migrants. No raging about rapists or threats to separate families will stop it. No racism against brown people or fear of demographic change in 21st-century America will stop it. A broken American immigration system certainly won’t stop it. Not as long as Central Americans are desperate."
Just as water seeks its own level, percolating through crevices of hard dry rock, desperate people will pursue desperate journeys. I applaud Roger Cohen for speaking out so cogently against the cynicism and politicization of crisis for Trump's political gain.
I hope Mr. Cohen can continue his investigative reporting. Today I learned that a WAPO columnist, Dana Milbank, critical of Trump, lost his White House press credentials. Donald Trump doesn't like criticism and is increasingly adopting the standard tactics of budding authoritarians. I worry about our free press and the good work it does to educate those of us interested in finding and reading the truth.
For the first time in my life I'm embarrassed to be American, so deeply has Donald Trump compromised our values and image--we were never perfect, but when it comes to desperate people fleeing desperate situations, at least, we tried.
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@ChristineMcM
For the first time in my life I'm embarrassed to be American, so deeply has Donald Trump compromised our values and image--we were never perfect, but when it comes to desperate people fleeing desperate situations, at least, we tried.
----------------
Keep trying, Christine. Catholic Charities has missionary programs that help provide for these families in their own home countries.
We don't need to break up the families and import them as unseen wage laborers here in America. Trust me, it will not get better for this family, split up, as these children age in America, which is not their own country, where they cannot yet communicate, and where they are not permitted to work legally. It must kill that father to be on the couch watching his son go out and face America every day... I pray they are smart enough to keep the girl at home.
8
@Midway Catholic Charities does enormous good in desperate communities abroad as well as in the U.S. But no matter how much we collect and donate it will never be enough to do more than keep people like the Pablos alive -- but hopeless, and too often in fear for their lives at the hands of the corrupt . If you are a person of faith, you'd better hope that God will show you more love and compassion than you're willing to extend to these strangers at our gates.
15
@Dona Maria
Please don't judge me or how much I extend to the strangers at the gate. You might be mistaken in your valuation.
The misery does not end, some say it multiplies, for the family remnants left here and there. The children especially will bear the costs. The Pablos will stay alive, I know that, and you don't. They do too.
Have faith, keep praying, but apply logic: it is sometimes safer to keep the family together, pray, and deal with the uncertainty of nothingness in the land you know over the place that will not be welcoming to economic refugees. The law, vs. charity help. It is what it is. God bless Dona Maria.
3
This is interesting. Pablo is planning to seek asylum but even the article notes that what he is seeking to escape is poverty. I can certainly understand that desire but it is simply not a legal basis for an asylum claim.
I think this attitude and approach that blatantly deceives and knowingly seeks to take advantage of a law that simply doesn’t apply in this case is what has many Americans so upset about this incredible influx of migrants.
We need to overhaul our immigration laws, but in the meantime, those who are essentially seeking to deceive in order to gain entry should be detained and returned. The asylum law is not a legal route for those seeking to escape poverty. Unfortunate for many, but true.
21
@L. Hoberman
I suspect the girl will be coming next, for the education as she mentioned, plus she could get paid to accompany another family member, which will automatically pull them in, as the 14 year old here did his father...
This is a broken system that encourages the break up of familes. Better to be poor together, than divided and sold up.
10
Midway, what would you do if you were him?
3
@L. Hoberman
You probably never had to "seek asylum"; you were free to "escape poverty" & thrive. Is trying to work to feed your family considered "escaping poverty" or escaping death? I suppose you consider a migrant picking grapes for $5 an hour "escaping poverty" and a road to riches? I doubt that they would be able to build their Wall Street portfolios on $5 (or even $15) per hour.
America will not stop the flow of migrants with cruelty at the border despite the efforts of this Administration. The desperation of Central Americans is too great and while Trump and the soulless hater Stephen Miller may have few limits to their malevolence, there are limits to what the American people will tolerate.
It will take a Democractic President willing to anger some people on the right AND the left to find a workable solution acceptable to a strong majority of Americans. It will also likely take a Democractic Senate as McConnell will not want to see any problems addressed during a Democractic administration.
Finding a compromise on a comprehensive immigration plan before Trump was elected was difficult. Until the toxins he introduced into the American political bloodstream work their way out -- something that will take years -- it is hard to see anything beyond incremental improvements at the edges.
And more pain. A lot more pain.
48
Mr. Cohen, you never fail to bring us inside each story you share, right to the heart of the matter.
Twenty five plus years ago, when I owned a travel agency, I received a call from a man I had booked on a trip to Central America. He said, “I am in Guatemala and I am terrified, get me out of here”. He was well-travelled, someone with great confidence. When he returned home, he came to my office, still clearly shaken by his overwhelming feeling of lawlessness he felt while there and said, “these people need help, they have nothing, and are under threat”.
I understand your country feeling overwhelmed by the numbers of migrants, asylum-seekers, but their plight is for survival, plain and simple.
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