Editor's note: Dennis Etler is a current affairs commentator who holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California, Berkley. He conducted archaeological and anthropological research in China throughout the 1980s and 1990s and taught at the college and university level for over 35 years. This is the first piece of his three-part series on U.S. gross human rights violation. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Over the last several decades, American immigration policies have incentivized the migration of millions of undocumented poverty-stricken, disenfranchised and dispossessed Central American and Mexican farmers and workers to the U.S., where they seek employment in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, food processing and other low paid service work.

Being undocumented, they lack the protections that other workers possess. They live in overcrowded substandard housing, lack access to health care, education, and other social benefits. Millions of such workers and their families live in fear of deportation and the breakup of their families. The presence of undocumented workers in the U.S. also contributes to demagogic political appeals to chauvinism and racism. Thus, U.S. immigration policy not only supplies various economic sectors with a pool of super-exploited workers but also a target for politicians to scapegoat.

It should be clear that the continuing refusal of the U.S. to reform its immigration policies serves the purpose of providing U.S. business interests with a constant supply of compliant, cheap labor.

Not only that, U.S. foreign policy in Central America has been responsible for conditions that have led to the pauperization of their populations. The U.S. has supported military juntas, landed oligarchs and has even surreptitiously provided aid and comfort to drug cartels in their fight against indigenous people struggling for their sovereign right to develop in peace and security.

The current crisis on the southern U.S. border is a direct result of both U.S. immigration and foreign policies. The two are inextricably bound together. The proliferation of gang violence in Central American nations has led thousands upon thousands of people to flee their homelands, taking a dangerous overland journey across drug cartel-infested territory. Migrants have to pay human traffickers called "coyotes" what little they have to make the perilous journey.

Once at the U.S. border, they are placed in makeshift camps waiting months, if not years, to be processed. During this time, they are easy prey for criminals of all sorts. When unaccompanied children are sent across the border as a last resort, they are corralled into overcrowded detention centers that bring adult observers to tears.

All of what is described above is a direct result of U.S. policies, some are explicit but many are tacit, allowing U.S. politicians to wash their hands of it and say that the immigration crisis is out of control. Rather than accept responsibility for the situation they accuse the refugees themselves of being the culprits.

In addition to all the above, the land where the migrant laborers go was conquered from Mexico in the 1840s. In a very real sense, the American Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, and much of Utah and Colorado are occupied territory whose original inhabitants have been dispossessed and subject to genocidal policies of wholesale ethnic cleansing, with millions of Americans flooding the region usurping land and resources for their own use.

It can be seen that the consequences of U.S. immigration policies and the historic U.S. policies of land grabs and imperialist exploitation of Latin America are the root cause of the immigration crisis. In combination with the exploitation of undocumented workers, the U.S. is engaged in gross human rights violations that should be condemned by all justice-loving people.

A fair and equitable policy for the U.S. to follow would be to make investments in Central America and Mexico dedicated to a policy of poverty alleviation. Many of the methods used by China such as targeted poverty alleviation could be employed to accomplish that. But, the U.S. and its surrogates in Central America have demonstrated that they have no interest in doing that. The U.S. could also normalize immigration procedures for migrant workers eliminating their undocumented status and ensuring them basic social services.

It seems, however, that the U.S. is unwilling to do anything to ensure the human rights of its migrant workers.

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