To Solve the Immigration Problem, We Must First Admit - We Created the Problem

“PBSuccess was the code name for a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz Guzman and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. Guzman was seen as a serious Communist threat after confiscating two-thirds of United Fruit Co.'s 332,000 acres and legalizing the Communist Party.” (BACM Paperless Archives) 

With thousands of migrants lining up on our southern border and governors threatening to charge other governors with kidnapping for transporting Central American migrants from their red states to rival blue states, we are so fixated on this serious human, political, and moral crisis that we forget -- or do not acknowledge -- the historical roots of this current crisis. If we ask why we are experiencing this crisis and we objectively look at the historical facts, we will be forced to acknowledge our own culpability.   

The quote above comes from recently declassified CIA documents that clearly show that it was United States policy to destabilize the Central American countries from which these migrants on the border are coming from today. In international affairs, like life in general, karma is real. 

The CIA documents reflect U.S. policy that viewed all international relationships from the perspective of the Cold War and fears of Soviet intervention in countries south of our border. The Soviet threat and interest were real, but our reaction to that threat was a mistake that has ongoing consequences today.  

Instead of promoting the economic interests of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, or Hattians, we sent the Marines and the CIA to destabilize democratically elected governments on the pretense of preventing Soviet influence when we were there, at least in large part, to protect the private business interests of the United Fruit Company and other U.S. based businesses. It is not a coincidence that the sibling heads of the CIA and the U.S. State Department, Alan and John Foster Dulles, were directors of the United Fruit Company. Talk about a conflict of interest. 

The gangsters we supported throughout the Caribbean and Central America in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s and into this century are the reason the people from these forlorn lands are heading north. Truillio in the Dominican Republic, Duvalier in Haiti, Samosa in Nicaragua, Batista in Cuba, Velasquez in Honduras, and Martinez in El Salvador are just a handful of the U.S. supported dictators who enriched themselves at the expense of their people and the stability of their countries. We supported these thugs as long as they promised to keep the Soviets out of their countries.  And if they did that, we turned a blind eye to anything they did to their own people or their country. 

This history is why we have a crisis at our border. If we have any hope of solving this problem, we must acknowledge the damage we did to these societies and be prepared to invest in democratic institutions, land reform, education, and human rights in all of these societies. If we are not prepared to do this, the stream of migrants coming north will not stop.  

Many Americans will choose to deny the connection between our actions in Central America and the Caribbean and today’s immigration crisis.  They may also argue that our policies to destabilize these countries was an appropriate reaction in the Cold War environment. Those who oppose this analysis may also argue that we cannot or should not use the moral standards of today to evaluate events of the past.  

Each of these arguments can be easily refuted by the data. The migrants from these countries are coming because there is no security and little opportunity for people who want to simply support their families and live their lives in peace.  We disrupted their countries in ways that are difficult for us to imagine.  We created the thugocracy that has entrapped millions of our neighbors.  

I do not claim to have solutions to this complex problem that has taken decades to create.  But I know that punishing the migrants who are the historical victims of our policy is not one of them. I think most Americans want our foreign policy to reflect our democratic ideals. The fact that they did not even come close to those ideals in the past should not prevent us from pivoting and moving forward in a way that will make our children proud of our decisions.  Reading the CIA’s history of assassinations and political intrigue is a shameful history that we cannot change, but we can correct going forward if we have the courage to base our actions in Central America and the Caribbean on our democratic principles.