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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri Jun 20, 2014, 06:42 AM Jun 2014

Honduran Boy Flees Gangs as Migrants Inundate U.S. Border

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-20/honduran-boy-flees-gangs-as-child-migrants-inundate-u-s-border.html


Abraham, 16, left, and Nery, 28, sit at the Casa de Migrante shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, on June 17, 2014.

Carlos boarded a bus last month using money he earned picking coffee beans and corn, fleeing the gangs of his native Honduras who’d threatened to kill him if he didn’t join. The 17-year-old made it as far as a migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, less than a quarter mile from the U.S. border, unsure of how to finish the trek.

“Where I live, parents are obligated to give a son to the gangs,” Carlos said this week as he fought tears and fidgeted with the drawstring of his Hawaiian flower-print shorts at the Senda de Vida shelter. His last name is being withheld because of his age.

If Carlos makes it to the U.S. before his birthday next month, he will join a record flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border, a deluge that began in 2011. More than 47,000 have arrived since October, a 92 percent increase from the prior year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They’re part of a surge of immigrants, mainly Central American, fleeing violence and poverty after hearing that immigration policy has grown more accommodating.

President Barack Obama this month directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ameliorate the “urgent humanitarian situation” and asked Congress for funding. Courts and social-service agencies have been overwhelmed, and guidelines on processing and detention thrown into disarray.
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