San Francisco Chronicle

U.S. must be honest about causes of migration

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Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a longawaite­d White House strategy to address the root causes of migration from Central America. It had all the predictabl­e things that the Obama/Biden presidency had promised years ago. There are strategies that sound good, but actually fail to address the root causes for which the U.S. is most able to address: the ones for which the U.S. is responsibl­e. For example, how about cutting the millions of dollars each year in military and security aid given to a Honduran government accused of narcotraff­icking, corruption and human rights abuses against its own people?

There are currently three bills in Congress calling for the halting of U.S. military and security aid, such as HR1574, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, and S388, the Honduras Human Rights and AntiCorrup­tion Act. And what about the U.S.’ disproport­ionate role in contributi­ng to climate change, which resulted in extreme hurricanes and massive floods in Honduras this year? The hurricanes were the last straw for 19,000 Hondurans who decided they had no options but to travel north.

It’s time to be honest about the U.S.’ role in the root causes of migration.

Deborah Lee, Oakland

 ?? Daniel Ochoa de Olza / Associated Press 2019 ?? A migrant from Honduras passes a child to her father after he jumped the border fence from Tijuana to get into the U.S.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza / Associated Press 2019 A migrant from Honduras passes a child to her father after he jumped the border fence from Tijuana to get into the U.S.

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