El Triángulo del Norte

There is this notion that all the immigrants/undocumented people in the United States come from one country: Mexico. Although a large percentage of the undocumented individuals come from Mexico and I can see why the U.S population may think this way, it is simply not true. There are many different types of undocumented people who come from different parts of the world but the numbers of individuals traveling from Central America such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (the Northern Triangle) are rising quickly as the number from Mexico have declined.

These children travel thousands of miles from their home to reach the United States to escape the violence, crime, gang threats, and to hopefully be reunited with their families in the United States. These children (coming from the Northern Triangle) were asked limited questions by the Trafficking and Victim’s Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) to determine of they were indeed without a parent or legal guardian. If so, the minors were transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) care within 72 hours. Looking more into this, the article mentions that about 40,000 unaccompanied child migrants were detained but only about 8,300 entered ORR’s program each year. In a 2011 report b

y the Appleseed Foundation documented that most child migrants from Mexico did not receive TVPRA screening, did not enter the ORR program, and were quickly deported back the Mexico. The children who migrated from Central America were given some sort of preference because they seem to come from indigenous areas or areas of high levels of drug violence.

These children have recounted many stories of why they decide to leave home and they all seem to revolve around the idea of violence. Central America is plagued with many gangs such as la Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) that recruit these children to become part of their gang offering “protection” from rival gangs or threatening to kill their loved ones if they do not do so. The article states that these gangs force these children to join against their will and they will stop at nothing to have them become one of them. The gangs will often hang around a park in close proximity to the nearby school to recruit these children. If they do not join, they are assaulted and are even killed.

The parents of these children indicate that their children are afraid to even leave the house in fear of getting assaulted or killed for not joining the gangs. These minors are afraid to live where they live and just want to become successful but the amount of gang violence does not permit this to occur. A parent mentions that she tried to get her child out of the house but the child suffered a panic attack and was sent to the doctor. The doctor informed her that it would be best for him to leave the country. This shows that child migrants are not a rare occurrence and it is upsetting to see that even the adults, who are suppose to protect these children, advocating that they migrate to the U.S.


Sources:
http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/no_childhood_here_why_central_american_children_are_fleeing_their_homes_final.pdf

Photo 1: wikipedia
Photo 2: http://www.noria-research.com/2012/07/13/central-america-stuck-in-traffic-the-downward-spiral-of-the-northern-triangle/