While Congress advances legislation in response to the tens of thousands of Central Americans who have entered the United States in recent months, we must educate ourselves and seek the genuine narrative behind this surge of peoples.

Keith Michael Estrada

Upon discovering the veracious account facing Central Americans vis-à-vis the United States’ contribution through our foreign and trade policies, one would find it difficult to support any proposed solution centered on deportation.

To justify the dangerous journey, circumstances must be so horrid that all risk involved in fleeing is outweighed by the mere hope of sanctuary in foreign lands.

Like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement has helped lay the foundation for many root causes encouraging people out of their nations, such as: greater poverty and unemployment, environmental degradation, violence and trafficking.

It is heinous for the United States to consider deportation and border enforcement as our primary options when we have the resources and responsibility to respond otherwise.

It is unwise to refrain from addressing and correcting our participation in the development of the Central American experience, one which presents and favors two outcomes for the poor and vulnerable who otherwise reject illicit alternatives: flee or die.