From The Washington Post:
“Our deportations at the time did not cause the gang problem, but they acted as a catalyst,” said Alfonso Valdez, a gang expert at the University of California, Irvine and a former government ­anti-gang agent. “People were poor, and the social conditions were ripe. It was like putting a virus in a culture dish.” … Valdez noted that the largest number of unaccompanied minors reaching the U.S. border come from the area of San Pedro Sula, a city on the northern coast of Honduras that is one of the most gang-infested cities in the Americas. “It makes no sense for us to send back kids to the most violent city in the hemisphere,” Valdez said.

For the full story, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gang-member-deportations-in-90s-fact....