They figured their best move was to prove their willingness to work; the first words in English that many of them learned was the phrase “I need a good work.” This made it even easier for the government to write them off as “economic migrants.” Those who applied for asylum were almost all rejected. Between 1983 and 1986, close to a hundred thousand Guatemalans reached the US, but only fourteen asylum petitions were granted. The denials didn’t stop the flow of people heading north. They simply clouded any understanding of who was coming and why.
