Downside of deporting thugs

Dallas Morning News: A rampant and unchecked wave of murders targeting Guatemalan women received deservedly strong condemnation by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 1, but Congress can do better.
The horrific slayings of more than 2,000 women and girls since 2001 have been met with indifference by Guatemalan authorities, who have not made a single arrest in 97 percent of those cases, says Sergio Morales, the country's human-rights ombudsman. Fighting crimes against women has long been a low priority in a region fraught with guerrilla violence and military dictatorship. Police corruption and laziness historically help fuel an atmosphere of impunity.
The current pattern of violence -- rapes, forced prostitution, beheadings and disappearances -- matches a trend across Central America wherever Latino gang members have landed after deportation from the ghettos of Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas.
The learning curve
They grew up here and learned their craft on our streets. But they are illegal immigrants, so we've dumped them by the thousands on Central America's doorstep without giving those nations the tools to deal with the aftermath. Like maquiladoras of murder, we deport the thugs, only to get a more dangerous product in return.
The most notorious are the Mara Salvatruchas, or MS-13, who killed 28 people on a Honduran bus in 2004. One of the killers -- a four-time U.S. deportee -- remained free until his arrest in Texas several months later.
Good riddance to bad rubbish, some might argue. But we objected when Saddam Hussein emptied his prisons and fomented the lawless chaos that greeted U.S. troops in 2003. We cried foul in 1994 when Fidel Castro let hardened criminals join a mass exodus of boat people to Florida. Should we be surprised that Guatemala is now overwhelmed with gang-fed violence, along with El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua?
More U.S. aid and training would ensure that justice prevails there. After all, at least part of Guatemala's problem was made in America.