The Dangerous Migrant: Gringo, Go Home
I unapologetically claim the term "gringophobia" to describe that mix of irritation and distrust sparked by certain foreigners from the Global North. Those who show up in our territories speaking only unintelligible languages, radiating entitlement, superiority, and the smug arrogance granted by the colonial white privilege. They feel authorized to appropriate, dispossess, and abuse because they know the system is designed to guarantee their impunity. They don’t fear committing violence; on the contrary, they rely on the fact that here, in the Global South, their passport, their accent, and their skin color are shields of power. That’s why I’m gringophobic.
You may have heard the popular myth that the word gringo comes from the phrase “Green, go home!,” supposedly shouted by Mexicans at American soldiers wearing green uniforms during the United States vs Mexico War (1846 - 1848). While it’s a catchy story, it’s a false one.
The word "gringo" was already in use before the war. It first appeared in the Spanish language in the 18th century. A 1787 Spanish dictionary used "gringo" to refer to foreigners who spoke Spanish poorly or whose language was difficult to understand, especially English and Greek speakers. Over time, in Latin America, the term came to refer specifically to English-speaking foreigners, particularly privileged individuals from the United States, oblivious to their own privilege and unwittingly displaying a sense of entitlement.
But here’s the thing: I prefer the myth. As someone who actively resists white supremacy and imperialism, “Green, go home” captures exactly how I feel—and it’s exactly what I want to say, loud and clear. We’re tired of gringos acting like they own everything: gentrifying our neighborhoods, appropriating our cultures, and committing crimes in our countries with little to no accountability.
With Donald Trump back in the White House and his fascist immigration policies reinstated, mass deportations are once again threatening countless lives, all justified by the false narrative that migrants are dangerous criminals. In January 2025, the Trump administration began transporting hundreds of migrant workers (many of whom had traveled without documentation (a civil offense, not a criminal one, since migration is a right) or had their visas revoked) under degrading conditions, shackled hand and foot in long chains.
In response to these humiliating and performative tactics—similar to those Trump had already used against migrants arriving in Brazil and other parts of Latin America—Colombian President Gustavo Petro requested to send a presidential aircraft to bring the deported Colombians home with dignity. Once they arrived in Colombian territory, he ordered judicial background checks on each of the deported migrants, including entire families with babies and children of various ages, all falsely labeled by Trump as “highly dangerous criminals”. None of them had criminal records, neither in Colombia nor in the United States.
Amid the trauma, migrant families were persecuted and criminalized. Their human rights were stripped away in the gringos’ country, especially those of African and Latin American people. We are gringophobic, and for good reason: migration from the Global South to the North is a direct consequence of colonialism, of the poverty and social destruction imposed on racialized communities through gentrification, extractive violence, and multinational exploitation. People are displaced and forced to migrate as a means of survival.
The persecution and criminalization of working class people in gringos’ territory, become even more outrageous when we know exactly who commit crimes with impunity in the Global South: the gringos, protected by white privilege, their blue passports, and US dollars.
In response to these mass deportations, and after confirming that none of the deported Colombians had criminal records, President Petro noted the presence of several Americans in Colombia with irregular legal status. “There are 15,660 American citizens living in Colombia without regular status. They must approach our immigration services to regularize their situation.”
Petro didn’t treat them as criminals, even though many of them are. And so now, I want to expose some of the crimes that gringos have committed in Colombia in the past year. Crimes that reveal who the real “dangerous migrants” are, and how the racist system continues to protect them. Let’s air out some of the gringos’ dirty laundry—since they’re so used to pretending it doesn’t stink.
In February 2024, 48-year-old Richard Vincent Polanski was arrested for sexually abusing six minors in Antioquia. Polanski forced his victims to consume drugs that he himself manufactured, earning the nickname El Químico (“The Chemist”). Authorities reported that this gringo had entered and exited Colombia 65 times before his arrest. That’s white privilege.
On March 28, 2024, Timothy Alan Livingston was caught red-handed by police in a hotel in Medellín with two minors, aged 12 and 13 years old. The case caused a national scandal due to its recurring nature. Even the president demanded his extradition and issued a blue Interpol notice to track him. Yet, despite his arrest, Livingston was released due to “lack of evidence” and left the country with total impunity.
On April 23, 2024, Stefan Andrés Correa was finally arrested for systematically committing sexual crimes against children. After his arrest, he admitted to raping several girls who had refused to have sex with him. Before his capture at the Miami airport, Correa had entered Colombia 45 times without ever being stopped.
In June 2024, justice was finally delivered in the brutal femicide of DJ Valentina Trespalacios. She was beaten and strangled by John Poulos, a man who then tried to erase what he had done by stuffing her body into a suitcase and dumping it in a garbage container in Bogotá’s Fontibón district. According to a statement from the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, Poulos meticulously tried to cover his tracks, but security footage exposed the horror of his actions. Valentina was 23 years old. Poulos was sentenced to 42 years in prison—a conviction that can never undo the violence he inflicted.
This crime shook the country deeply, and I say “the country” loosely, because renowned media director Julio Sánchez Cristo and his team at W Radio thought it was a brilliant idea to hand a national microphone to the US-American femicide perpetrator. For over an hour, they let him spew excuses to try to justify the murder, revictimize Valentina and her family, and twist the narrative.
These cases are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the crimes and violence that gringos commit in Colombia and across Latin America and the Caribbean. From everyday racist, symbolic, and physical aggression to drug production, labor, sexual exploitation, and femicide, it is very clear who the truly dangerous migrants are.
So yes, I know “gringo” didn’t come from “green, go home.”
But today, as a form of resistance, we say it loud and clear:
Gringo, supremacist: go home.
We’re tired of you.
We’re angry at you.
We’re gringophobic.
And we have every right to be.