On Immigration - A Homegrown Crisis

In the 1980s the United States fueled a violent Civil War throughout El Salvador backing right-wing political parties in effort to install governments which could be influenced by the U.S. with the main objective of securing resources and political power thought the region. This directly and indirectly created many of the conditions those trapped at the southern border are seeking refuge from today...

Why?

The Success of the Cuban Revolution brought the spread of many Leftist movements throughout the Latin American region. At the time (cold-war era) U.S. policy considered any emergence of leftist political superpowers in Latin America to be a direct threat to U.S. interest. A wave was spreading.

The Solution

Under Ronald Regan the US armed, trained, and supported rightwing government forces and death squads to essentially "snuff out" these leftist communist like movements, as part of our then policy to prevent the spread of communism at all costs.

The Result

The Salvadoran Civil War, which lasted 12 years from 1980-1992 (the year i was born), claimed over 70,000 lives displacing more than 1/4th the population creating massive levels of social and economic breakdown which we are still seeing today.

The later published United Nations Truth Commission stated that 85% of the violence was attributed to the U.S. backed government forces, and only 15% to the FMLN (leftist opposition movement).

Throughout the 80's and 90's we saw a massive immigration movement of people seeking refuge from these conditions, however the U.S. did not enter these people as political refugees. Denying refugee/asylum status gave way to large communities of undocumented people traumatized by war and without resources, fending for themselves.

Gangs arose (L.A) as away for these communities to find support from each-other and survive the conditions in which they where faced. Gangs ultimately led to activity which put these communities in prison, resulting deportation back to the countries they where fleeing from.

Under Pres. Clinton (93'-01') the US expand who was deportable to include anyone with a criminal conviction or gang affiliation, regardless of their green card status. Essential deporting over 50,000 "criminals" back to a country which had no law or social work structure to rehabilitate and reintegrate these communities back into society, in fact El Salvador in the 90s had barely a government at all, which allowed the now deported gang members to reconstitute with more power essentially fighting with the El Salvador govt to rule the country they had fled years prior.

Here & Now

Gang warfare with Local El Salvadoran government persisted throughout the early 2000's, seeing escalations in gang power and violence, adding to economic and social instability thus creating unlivable conditions for many Salvadoran born citizens. As U.S. aid declines for these regions they can only become evermore unstable.

In 2018 the current administration cut El Salvador aid by as much as 35%, a number which is expected to increase. All while separating refugee families at the border and imprisoning them for indefinite amounts of time.

As the conditions in El Salvador and many Latin American countries continue to deteriorate or plateau we will see increased amounts of immigrants at the southern border. When we meet these immigrants with military tactics - build a wall, more boots on the ground etc - we are refusing to acknowledge the root cause. A root cause that dates back over 200 years, a root cause that we The United States has constantly played a role in. A root cause that is the direct result to our own doing…