WP,pg1: Impoverished Central American children risk all to reach US, alone

[DeepModem Mom]

Young Migrants Risk All to Reach U.S.
Thousands Detained After Setting Out From Central America Without Parents
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 28, 2006; Page A01

QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala -- Across Central America, growing numbers of impoverished children appear to be setting out for the United States on their own, risking robbery, rape and death as they try to sneak illegally through Mexico and across the U.S. border.

Last year, 6,460 underage illegal immigrants from Central America were detained in the United States while traveling without their parents and sent to government shelters, a 35 percent increase over the previous year. Many others likely slipped in undetected.

The higher detention figures may reflect stepped-up enforcement by Mexican and U.S. authorities. But social workers who help such child migrants say the stricter enforcement might actually be causing more children to travel alone. They note that many have parents who are already in the United States illegally and are unwilling to fetch them now that the chances of getting caught have increased.

Many of the youths never make it to the border. Mexico reported deporting 3,772 unaccompanied Central American minors bound for the United States in 2005, compared with fewer than 700 in 2003.

Mexican immigration authorities were catching and deporting so many Guatemalan children trying to sneak through Mexico to the United States that the Guatemalan government opened a 50-bed shelter last year to receive them until they could be picked up by their parents. It was quickly overwhelmed....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700771.html

[gaspee]

1. Heartbreaking

No fences, no penalties, will keep people like these kids from immigrating illegally.

The only thing that will stop illegal immigration is for Mexican/Central American economies to flourish.

Or, for the Mexification of America to be complete. Then they'll have no reason to come here.

And by Mexification of America, I mean the widening income gap. Mexico has one of the largest disparities between rich and poor world-wide.

Once the US catches up, and all but the elite live like paupers, there will be no reason for immigrants to come here. Could that be the Republicans dastardly master plan? //g//

[MountainLaurel]

2. Que horrible!

Those poor, desperate children.

:cry: