What Does the U.S. Owe Climate Refugees?

Central Americans Are Fleeing an Ecological Disaster They Didn't Cause

Last fall, back-to-back major hurricanes, Eta and Iota, slammed into the Caribbean coast of Central America, creating storm surges and flooding from Belize to Panama. In parts of Honduras and Guatemala more rain fell in two weeks than typically falls in four months. Mudslides such as the one that buried the Maya community of Nuevo Quejá in Guatemala killed scores of people and rendered the landscape uninhabitable. The damage was estimated at more than $9 billion. Physical recovery will take decades, if it happens at all.

One survivor of the destruction …

Why the U.S. Is So Unfair to Central American Refugees

For Decades, American Foreign Policy Positions Pre-Determined Which Asylum Seekers Get Accepted or Rejected

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement on April 6, 2018 that all unauthorized border crossers will be federally prosecuted might sound like a reversal of U.S. policy. So might his …

Surviving Managua’s Government Crackdowns and Torrential Rains

A Refugee Couple Tends Their Garden in Nicaragua's Ruined Capital

On an overcast afternoon, Julio Baldelomar carries his metal ring of bagged chips past a new tourist attraction called Paseo Xolotlán, named for the nearly Los Angeles-sized lake on Managua, …

What’s Happening at the Border Is a Humanitarian Crisis, Not a Political One

The Thousands of Children Fleeing Central America Have Nothing to Do With Our Ongoing Debate Over Immigration

Less than 48 hours after the nation collectively chanted “USA!” for the national soccer team in the World Cup last week, a much smaller group of Americans in Murrieta, California, …

Genocide in Our Hemisphere

Why the Trial of Gen. Ríos Montt is Good for Guatemala and the World

On May 10, a Guatemalan court made history when it found General Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed while he controlled the government in the …