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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Sun Jul 15, 2018, 09:42 PM Jul 2018

The families we're caging at the border are fleeing disasters we helped create Opinion


Updated 2:51 PM; Posted 2:51 PM

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
By Anne Manuel

President Donald Trump recently vowed to cut off aid to Central American countries that "abuse us by sending their people up" to the United States to seek asylum. Trump is apparently unaware of, or impervious to, the irony behind the notion of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras abusing their neighbor to the north, but the rest of us might want to bear a little history in mind.

Central American governments have long bowed to U.S. interests, from the late 19th century when their subservience to U.S. fruit companies earned them the nickname "banana republics." And for most of the 20th century, U.S. presidents put corporate interests at the forefront of relations with the isthmus, generally to the detriment of all Central Americans save the wealthy elite.

Does this history mean that America should fling open its borders to all? Of course not. But it does argue for some humanity in the way we enforce our laws, some appreciation for the role we played in creating the instability and violence these migrants are fleeing. It should make us think twice before putting these families behind bars while they pursue their claims, let alone separating them from their children.

Take the case of Guatemala. An agrarian nation where a minority controls almost all of the arable land, it has been said that Guatemala's poor can die falling out of their cornfields, since the only land available to them scales vertiginous mountain slopes. As was the case in the entire region except for Costa Rica, the extreme inequalities in wealth and income in Guatemala could be defended only by military dictatorship. Indeed, Costa Rica, the only Central American country that emerged from the colonial period with relatively little income inequality, is the region's only longstanding democracy.

More:
https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/07/the_families_were_caging_at_the_border_are_fleeing.html
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