The Deposer in Chief: Hillary in Honduras

"If the Department of Homeland Security believes," said Alvarado, "if the US government believes that people are going to stop coming, they are wrong. Because for as long as it is more dangerous to stay than to leave, people will continue to leave their countries of origin, looking for better horizons, particularly when the levels of violence are unbearable in those places."

"I was in Honduras a few months ago, and I met four young men who had been deported from New Orleans," said Alvarado. "These men left Honduras in the first place to come to the United States for few years because they were forced to grow African palm, but they couldn't compete in the market, so these new policies displaced them, took away their subsistence farming, and they were forced to come north. And then they come north, they produce, they help reconstruct New Orleans, and then they are sent back. So these are the victims -- workers, impoverished communities, poor people are the ones who are the victims of these policies. Obviously, you know the aristocrats in Honduras, you know, the powerful families, they continue to profit from those trade agreements," said Alvarado, "and of course, this free trade policy is something that Hillary Clinton promoted as secretary of state, after she supported that coup d'etat against President Zelaya. And the US role with Clinton as secretary of state has had catastrophic consequences."

"Before President Zelaya was deposed, he was trying to bring a sense of equality, bring some kind of justice to impoverished communities," said Alvarado. "For instance, he was trying to increase the minimum wage for workers, which is precisely why people leave, because wages and working conditions are not the best in our countries of origin. So people tend to migrate. So these were some of the changes that President Zelaya was trying to do. Now the US government comes in and supports a coup d'etat against President Zelaya. And right immediately after the coup, you could see the levels of violence skyrocketing. And San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa are becoming some of the most violent cities in the planet."

Alvarado said there is now a great deal of fear in the undocumented communities regarding the reports of expanded raids and deportation led by ICE and DHL. And it affects almost every family and every undocumented person in the US. "Now it's happening every single day. I have a cousin who migrated a few months ago. She was caught at the US/Mexico border. She happened to be a police officer in El Salvador, and she was investigating a case of extortion. And it turned out that some of the other officers were the ones who were involved in the crime. When she reported that, she began being persecuted. She was deported a few months ago from the US because she didn't qualify for political asylum."

Alvarado said he is working with friends, colleagues, and supporters to prepare for the new wave of deportations, even as he continues to fight for the right of undocumented workers and for humane immigration reform. "We'll do what every vulnerable community under siege has done in the past," said the human rights activist. "The first and most important thing is that migrants have to resist the fear that these raids are instilling in their lives, you know? And the way to do that is by making sure that migrants know their rights, and how to exercise them, and particularly when a deportation agent comes knocking on their door."

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.