WASHINGTON—The afternoon of April 18, Good Friday, was warm and sunny in Washington, D.C.—a clean, dry interlude before swampy weather settles in.
On the streets of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, men from El Salvador, Guatemala, and other Central American countries played cards at tables and shot the breeze on stoops. Salvadoran restaurants, shops, and street vendors are particularly thick on the ground in a neighborhood where they’ve had a presence since the 1960s.
People flocked to a Catholic church, the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, living proof of the strong Catholic faith that anchors many here.
Elsewhere in the nation’s capital, politicians are divided over Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as he and President Donald Trump cooperate to crack down on crime and illegal immigration….