Deported Central American Teens Face Harrowing Choice: Join a Gang or Die Steve Fisher - Newsweek
go to original August 20, 2016

Today, as wars between rival gangs continue to wreak havoc on Central America, more child migrants are heading to the U.S. without their parents. According to a study released in 2014 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 58 percent of Central American child migrants who arrived after October 2011 fled because of violence.

With more kids on the way, the Obama administration is making the deportation of young adults like Acosta, who arrived in the past two years, a top priority. But once American authorities send them home, many face a terrible choice: join a gang or die.

Because of the Obama administration’s crackdown, the journey from Central America is becoming increasingly dangerous. And human rights activists say U.S. efforts to recruit Mexico to help stanch the flow of minors have put kids in greater peril. With the borders now reinforced, migrants are taking riskier routes through southern Mexico. Drug cartels snag many of them for ransom, sex trafficking or transporting drugs. Others are murdered for the little cash they carry. Experts say the Mexican police don’t treat the migrants much better than the cartels do. A recent survey by the nonprofit Jesuit Migrant Service in Mexico showed police-related robberies, beatings and arbitrary detention of migrants have increased by 86 percent since 2014.

Despite the dangers, “no one's stopped leaving Central America,” says Maureen Meyer, the senior associate for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America. “The people who are able to get here have just figured out how to get around Mexico's enforcements.”

More than 40,000 child migrants arrived in the U.S. from last October through June of this year, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agency insists smugglers tricked many of the young migrants by giving them false promises of a safe journey and legal residence in the United States. CBP spokesman Jaime Ruiz says many more would come were it not for its international media campaign warning kids not to make the trek. In the past two years, the agency has funded radio ads, television spots - even a music album - in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to convey the message that the trip is life-threatening. “We're just putting information out there,” Ruiz says. “Those parents, they have the last choice.” The kids who do travel north still risk deportation if they make it across the border.

Read the rest at Newsweek

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Related: Faith and Community Groups Go on 150-Mile March from the Border (KPBS)

Photo: The Intercept

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