The treatment of children on our southern border has many Americans asking—“Why?” Why are so many children being separated from their families, kept in detention and treated like criminals? How could 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo and 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, both from Guatemala, have died in our custody? On our watch?

Edgar Pérez Archila is an expert in righting wrongs. As a human rights attorney and director of the human rights law firm Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Huamnos de Guatemala (The Law Office of Human Rights in Guatemala), he and his team defend fellow Guatemalans from egregious abuses. He has represented survivors of genocide seeking convictions …

Just recently, the New York Times shared the tragic story of Donelda Pulex Castellanos, whose 6-year-old daughter was held in an immigration detention center for two months. Castellanos and her daughter were then reunited and abruptly deported back to their home in Santa Rosa de Lima, a poor rural municipality in Guatemala.[1] The article reminded …