I discovered in the U.S. something that I had learned in El Salvador, the power of community

Power Station

What compels men and women to leave their home countries behind to migrate to the United States? Oscar Chacon, executive director of Alianza Americas, has made it his mission to answer this question for our elected leaders whose policies determine the quality of life for some 22 million Latin American and the Caribbean immigrants, the largest segment of America’s foreign born population who now reside in the U.S. As Oscar shares on this episode of Power Station, until America’s leaders understand the political, economic, and environmental conditions in El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Mexico, and other countries of origin, they cannot fully appreciate what drives migration. He defies conventional advocacy strategies by sending American policy makers to embed with families and communities in Latin America and bringing Latin Americans to tell their stories in America. Alianza is a safe space for Latin American and Caribbean leaders of community based nonprofits here to tackle inequities both in the US and at home. Immigrants are a committed community, sending $156 billion dollars back home, an amount greater than any other form of U.S. assistance to Latin American countries. This, Oscar tells us, is the power of love and empathy.