This post is part of a series delving into the plight of the Central American children and families fleeing violence in Central America. The series will examine the historical context of the crisis, challenges that refugees face, international human rights obligations, and costs of a response.

United States’ hypocrisy and its pick-and-choose humanitarianism is pointed out in The Advocates’ friend Mary Turck in her op-ed posted on Al Jazeera America. “U.S. immigration laws pose almost insurmountable barriers for these Central American youths fleeing gangs, drug lords and threats of death or rape,” she writes. “But consider another group of refugees that it welcomes without question: Cubans. The erratic treatment says that U.S. immigration policy is guided more by politics than by humanitarian considerations or respect for international standards for treatment of refugees.”