The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deported 38 Hondurans – all women and children – this week who migrated to the country illegally. They had been held in a detention facility in New Mexico.
The migrants went back to San Pedro Sula, otherwise known as the murder capital of the world.
Honduran President Juan Hernandez said Tuesday that the reason for a Honduran exodus to the north isn’t economic poverty, but U.S. drug policy. “The root cause is that the United States and Colombia carried out big operations in the fight against drugs,” Hernandez said. “Then Mexico did it.”
More Must-Reads From TIME
- Succession Was a Race to the Bottom, And Everybody Won
- What Erdoğan’s Victory Means for Turkey—and the World
- Why You Can't Remember That Taylor Swift Concert All Too Well
- How Four Trans Teens Threw the Prom of Their Dreams
- Why Turkey’s Longtime Leader Is an Electoral Powerhouse
- The Ancient Roots of Psychotherapy
- Drought Crisis Spurs U.S.-Mexico Collaboration
- Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction