evidence: Over the past 35 years, I have returned to El Salvador many times, and traveled throughout the region, including in Honduras and Guatemala. I have learned that to make the best policy decisions and investments in U.S. aid, we need to confront and learn from our own history and mistakes. [...] I have seen how past and current U.S. immigration and deportation policies directly contributed to the establishment of violent gangs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Beginning in the 1990s, we deported tens of thousands of gang members, many for minor infractions, back to the region, seeding the ground for today’s gang violence. [...] Poverty, injustice, violence, murder, corruption, inequality and impunity in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are homegrown. But history shows, with too few exceptions, that when local officials and activists have stood up for basic human rights and dignity, the U.S. too often failed to help them, sometimes standing by when they were threatened and harassed, and at worst, intervening on behalf of those who would bury dissent.