Dangerous conditions in their homelands are leading tens of thousands more families in Central America and Mexico to send their children to cross the U.S. border illegally by themselves, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. Citing data from two U.S. federal agencies, the report, released on Jan. 30, estimates that as many as 60,000 children traveling without relatives might enter the country this fiscal year. The report cited data from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, showing that an average of 6,800 unaccompanied minors were apprehended in the United States each year between 2004 and 2011. In 2012 the number doubled to 13,000 and in 2013 nearly doubled again to more than 24,000. Among the primary factors pushing the increase in traffic to the border by children and teens were poor economic conditions, gang violence “and a corresponding breakdown of the rule of law” that have “created a culture of fear and hopelessness.”
Child Migrants
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?