US Urges Mexicans, Central Americans Not to Entrust Their Kids to Migrant Smugglers Agencia EFE
go to original August 26, 2015

A young undocumented migrant rests under a map of routes for migrants through Mexico at the La 72 shelter in Tenosique, Mexico last year. (New York Times)

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson alerted people in Central America and Mexico about the dangers of paying smugglers, known as "coyotes," to convey their children across the border and into the U.S., especially during the intense heat of summer.

"Know the facts. Do not be misled. Do not fall prey to criminal smugglers who regard children as commodities," Johnson warned in an op-ed published on Agencia EFE's U.S. domestic service, EFEUSA.

In his column, the secretary told the story of Jonathan, an 11-year-old boy from El Salvador who set out on the dangerous road north because his family wanted to give him a better life, far from the violence and lack of opportunity of his native country.

On Aug. 6, the Border Patrol found the boy on the Mexico-Texas border, dehydrated and exhausted from the scorching summer heat, Johnson said.

"Our Border Patrol agents found Jonathan and tried to save him, but it was too late. Jonathan was pronounced dead in a nearby Texas hospital," the secretary related in his article entitled "Know the Facts about the Dangers of Illegal Migration."

His op-ed is part of an informative campaign aimed at discouraging the undocumented from crossing the border by warning people in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala of the dangers of the trip and the immediate deportation that awaits them.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

Related: Surprising Truth About Where US Immigrants Are Coming From (VOA)

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