Centuries of European imperialism, exploitation, and betrayal have left former colonies in Africa, South Asia, and South America impoverished, depleted of natural resources, and vulnerable to tyrannical rulers that learned their skills at the feet of their former colonial rulers.
The U.S. played its own game of monopoly in the western hemisphere by meddling in the affairs of numerous central American nations, under the guise of protecting American industry and keeping out the Red Menace. We somehow rationalized our actions with the notion that we had to destroy these nations in order to save them. In many cases, the U.S. overthrew democratically-elected leaders and installed right-wing dictators, while allowing such criminals to enrich themselves and their cronies through the drug trade.
When regimes in both hemispheres crumbled under their own corrupt weight, power vacuums were created, only to be filled by gangs, militias, and war-lords, with reigns of terror becoming the new normal.
And we wonder why the forsaken men, women, and children of these societies risk their lives to seek asylum, bot legally and illegally. And our leaders blame them for their own misfortune, and revile them for the color of their skin and religious beliefs. The type of men that enriched themselves through slavery and exploitation, and created the very circumstances that have lead to dire poverty and oppression in the so-called “Third World.” The type of men who insist that God is on “our side” and that wealth is our destiny.