DISPLACEMENT

PLACE OF BIRTH IS NOT A CHOICE

Has America’s foreign policy backfired? During the decades of the Cold War, the CIA provided support to the military dictators of Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. In attempts to stop the spread of communism to the Western hemisphere, the United State trained and equipped brutal, state- sponsored terrorism. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Central and South Americans have sought refuge to the United States.

Jonathan Blitzer, in Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, narrates the struggles of men, women, and children of Central and South America to escape U.S. supported massacre, torture, and poverty through immigration.

In September 2025, the Department of Homeland Security ended temporary protections for more than 50,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans who have lived in the U.S. for decades. These people are nurses, mechanics, sanitation workers, and executives. They have fallen in love, bought houses and raised children. They have opened restaurants and construction companies, have paid taxes and contributed to Social Security, living and working legally in the United States for decades. These people have no criminal history because you cannot maintain TPS with criminal history. They have been paying their taxes for decades. They have been paying to reregister.

As of July 11, 2025 immigrants must pay a one percent tax to send money back to family and friends in their home countries, and they and must pay $100 to apply for asylum. Those asylum seekers will have to pay an additional $100 annually while they wait for a decision on their application. If asylum is rejected, immigrants pay roughly $800 more to appeal the decision.

Currently, most asylum claims are rejected. Trump has fired more than 80 immigration judges he takes issue with.