Child refugees: A reader, part 1

Child refugees: A reader, part 1 August 24, 2014

“Over the past few years, the US has seen a rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied children … crossing into the US illegally — most of them from Central America.” Dara Lind writes in a Vox explainer, “Everything you need to know about the child and family migrant crisis.”

One more thing you need to know is that most of these children are refugees — meaning they are not crossing the border “illegally.” US law and international law do not forbid refugees from fleeing across national borders. On the contrary, US law and international law say it is illegal to forbid refugees from crossing national borders.

Here are some excellent articles and resources explaining the basic outlines of the current child refugee situation, its causes, and some possible responses.

• Dara Lind, “Everything you need to know about the child and family migrant crisis” (Vox)

Over the past few years, the US has seen a rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied children … crossing into the US illegally — most of them from Central America. This year, the number of children is at a crisis point: 77,000 unaccompanied children will be apprehended by Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2014. That’s nearly twice as much as last year.

Additionally, this year, there’s been a rapid increase in the number of parents arriving with young children. Tens of thousands of parents have been apprehended this year. Both of these influxes have been concentrated in the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas/Mexico border.

• Ian Gordon, “Why Are More and More Children Walking Across the Border?” (Mother Jones)

A major factor in the increase, known simply as “the surge” to government officials and child-welfare advocates, appears to be the rise in gang violence in Central America. The number of Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran children crossing alone has skyrocketed in recent years, even as the number of Mexican kids has held steady. “What’s alarming is that there’s an increasing number saying they’re fleeing forcible gang recruitment and gang violence,” says Elizabeth Kennedy, a San Diego State University researcher who studies unaccompanied child migrants. “They were being forcibly recruited into the gangs and didn’t want to be a part of it, and so they had to flee because threats had been made on them or their family members.”

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• Saul Elbein, “Guatemalans Aren’t Just Fleeing Gangs” (The New Republic)

What we’re seeing in Guatemala is not quite, in other words, a crime wave. It’s simply the way things have been there for a long time, pushed to the next level. If you are a civilian there, beneath the labels — soldier; gangster; policeman; army; cartel — is but one underlying reality: men with guns who do what they want and take what they want. Your options are to buy your own security and gunmen; to join a gang yourself; or to leave.

• Alfred Corchado, “Central American migrants face grueling journey north” (Dallas Morning News)

They carry almost nothing — a bottle of water, maybe a T-shirt, usually a scrap of paper with the name of a relative in case something happens to them. They are dependent even more than usual on the good will of others for food and shelter, adding to the challenge of an already desperate trek north.

The ride aboard the trains, known collectively as la bestia, The Beast, or tren de la muerte, Train of Death, is harrowing. Over the years, many migrants have fallen from the trains or been caught beneath their wheels, losing limbs and often their lives. Criminals have preyed on the helpless passengers, who face the threat of robbery, rape or death.

• Alfred Corchado, “Poverty, violence fuel exodus of youths from Honduras to US” (Dallas Morning News)

“What we’re witnessing today is an accumulation of factors that have continued building, leading to a steady increase in migration,” said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “As people become more desperate and parents in the United States see things get more violent, people look for new solutions and a new way out. I lived in Central America during the conflict years, and while the refugee situation was different, the amount of violence and fear is just as great now as it was then.”

• Randall C. Archibald, “Hope Dwindles for Hondurans Living in Peril” (The New York Times)

The pastor came one afternoon to survey his church, or what was left of it: remnants of a “welcome” sign and a strip of Christmas garland still tacked to the wall.

The gang took the chairs. They took the light fixtures. They took the doors. They had given his family 24 hours to get out and so they did, abandoning their home and the small evangelical church he led.

“There was no other way,” Pastor Jorge Rivassaid the other day, on the porch of a house in another part of this violent city, where the family has taken refuge. “We would die there.” …

• Cindy Carcamo, “In Honduras, US deportees seek to journey north again” (Los Angeles Times)

“There are many youngsters who only three days after they’ve been deported are killed, shot by a firearm,” said Hector Hernandez, who runs the morgue in San Pedro Sula. “They return just to die.”

At least five, perhaps as many as 10, of the 42 children slain here since February had been recently deported from the U.S., Hernandez said.

See also:
• Immigration Policy Center, “Children in Danger: A Guide to the Humanitarian Challenge at the Border”

• Lazaro Zamora, “Unaccompanied Alien Children: A Primer” (Bipartisan Policy Center)

• Sue Sturgis, “Index: The refugee crisis unfolding on the US border” (Institute for Southern Studies)

• Derek Schwabe, “For Families in Central America, Heartbreaking Decisions” (Bread for the World)

• Elizabeth Kennedy, “No Childhood Here: Why Central American Children Are Fleeing Their Homes” (American Immigration Council)

• Patricia Zengerle & Julia Edwards, “Fight over human trafficking law jeopardizes US response to border crisis” (Reuters)

• Danny Vinik, “How Much Would It Cost to Deport All Undocumented Immigrants?” (The New Republic)

• Greg Sargent, “On border crisis, Ted Cruz and Steve King are not outliers” (The Washington Post)

• Kevin Drum, “If Congress Wants to Know Who’s Responsible for the Immigration Crisis, It Should Look in a Mirror” (Mother Jones)


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