This Op-Ed piece from the New York Times offers harsh criticism of the U.S. and Mexican policy that sends young refugees back to the communities they are risking their lives to escape. “I admire much about the Obama administration,” says the author “including its fine words about refugees, but this policy is rank with deadly hypocrisy.” The author says the US government has coerced Mexico into doing its “dirty work” by detaining and deporting refugees that enter into Mexico from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, including young people and children who are fleeing unprecedented gang violence and threats to their lives in their home countries, a policy which the author believes “betrays some of the world’s most vulnerable people.” The article describes the ways in which the policy, which began in 2014, has made this humanitarian crisis worse and put unaccompanied minors at much greater risk. The author urges the US to “work at the highest levels with Honduras and El Salvador to address the chaos in those countries, particularly because the U.S. bears some responsibility for the problems.”
