In Rural Honduras, the Pull North to US Through Mexico is Strong Nick Miroff - The Washington Post
go to original August 6, 2013

Catholic Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra warns migrants of the dangers in their journey while at the Hermanos en el Camino (Brothers in the Road) shelter on August 4, 2013 in Ixtepec, Mexico. (John Moore/Getty Images)

COMAYAGUA, Honduras  -  It is 1,862 miles from here to the kitchens and lawns of Houston. The route through Mexico is more dangerous than ever. And if Santos Arias somehow manages to reach the U.S. border without getting arrested, kidnapped, robbed, maimed, beaten or killed along the way, chances are he’ll be deported and have to start all over again.

“I know the risks,” said Arias, who earns $50 a week hawking cellphone accessories and airtime minutes in the street. “Anything is better than here.”

Desperate, daring and acutely aware of the prosperity gap between here and “Los United,” young Central Americans like Arias are the future of illegal immigration to the United States.

Though the overall number of arrests along the U.S. southern border has fallen near its lowest point in 40 years, there has been a surge of unlawful newcomers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since 2011.

Unlike Mexico, where economic growth and a lower birthrate have contributed to a 75 percent drop in illegal crossings to the United States since 2005, the countries of Central America’s “Northern Triangle” are producing too few jobs, too much violence and too many young people. Like Arias, many are willing to take mortal risks to work as landscapers and dishwashers for $8 an hour  -  equal to a full day’s wages back home  -  in Central American magnets like Houston, New Orleans and the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

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