It already had a policy it called the Consequence Delivery System, an elaborate deterrence scheme designed to send strong messages back to the region: expedited removal of migrants at the border, the use of jails to detain recent arrivals, enforcement operations choreographed to generate press attention. Starting in the spring and summer of 2014, it added a regional counterprogramming campaign. If you turned on the radio in the Northern Triangle of Central America, you might hear songs with lyrics like these, from an ad that ran in El Salvador and Honduras: “Hanging on the railcars / Of this
...more
