Jenny's Journal is about coming to know Mexican culture. It is "a dialogue between facts learned and experiences felt, between observations and reflections, between our spirits and the spirit of Mexico."
Some of what we learn and experience causes discomfort, but the discomfort neither detracts from nor dismisses the underlying reality. So when this interview with Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke appeared in today's Proceso magazine, it seemed right to make it available to Jenny's readers. Please keep in mind that the 'police' strategies identified by O'Rourke are also being implemented across wide swathes of Mexico ... with the same destabilizing effects.
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| Central American Migrant Between Cars of 'The Beast' Freight Train During Stop in Arriaga, Chiapas. Photo: AP / Rebecca Blackwell |
Proceso: Luis Chaparro
Translated by Jane K. Brundage
El Paso, Texas - The U.S. government is primarily responsible for the forced migration that in the last year has brought thousands of Central American children migrants illegally to its territory, believes Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke. In an interview with Proceso magazine, O'Rourke said:
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), unaccompanied children detained by the Border Patrol along the entire southern border in 2011 numbered 8,000. However, so far in 2014 the number has risen to 47,000, and it is expected that by the end of the year it might reach about 60,000 undocumented juvenile detainees.
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for fiscal year 2014 shows that the majority of juveniles detained in the United States for not carrying documents proving their legal entry come from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. According to statistics, from January 1 to May 14, 2014, about 2,200 children from that area were apprehended by the Border Patrol.
San Pedro Sula is currently considered one of the most violent cities in the world with more than four daily homicides in a population under 800,000 [2011 Population: 437,798; second largest city in Honduras]. Tegucigalpa [Honduras] is next, with about 300 juveniles detained in the same period. Then there is San Salvador in El Salvador and Guatemala, Guatemala, with about 400 juvenile migrants arrested in the first five months of 2014, according to statistics from CBP.
O'Rourke explained:
However, in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2013, 57 Congressmen demanded an investigation of the incident in which, it stated, the DEA had a "significant" responsibility in the murder of people who presumably did not maintain any tie with drug activity. Spanish original
Related Translations From Mexico Voices Blog:
Translated by Jane K. Brundage
El Paso, Texas - The U.S. government is primarily responsible for the forced migration that in the last year has brought thousands of Central American children migrants illegally to its territory, believes Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke. In an interview with Proceso magazine, O'Rourke said:
"We have a big responsibility for what happens to these Central American children, because our appetite for illegal drugs is helping a lot to destabilize these countries. The simple fact is that the drug trafficking route now crosses through the Central American countries and creates violence."O'Rourke accepted that the "aggressive presence" of agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and other federal entities "in countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador" has been destabilizing Central America and has created an environment of violence that is "unlivable for Central American families." He added:
"The presence of DEA agents, our sending in war material plus our past record of preventing their own [economic] growth is directly affecting these Central American countries."Since early 2014, U.S. immigration authorities have received an overwhelming number of unaccompanied migrant minors illegally trying to get into the country in their search for family reunification.
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), unaccompanied children detained by the Border Patrol along the entire southern border in 2011 numbered 8,000. However, so far in 2014 the number has risen to 47,000, and it is expected that by the end of the year it might reach about 60,000 undocumented juvenile detainees.
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for fiscal year 2014 shows that the majority of juveniles detained in the United States for not carrying documents proving their legal entry come from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. According to statistics, from January 1 to May 14, 2014, about 2,200 children from that area were apprehended by the Border Patrol.
San Pedro Sula is currently considered one of the most violent cities in the world with more than four daily homicides in a population under 800,000 [2011 Population: 437,798; second largest city in Honduras]. Tegucigalpa [Honduras] is next, with about 300 juveniles detained in the same period. Then there is San Salvador in El Salvador and Guatemala, Guatemala, with about 400 juvenile migrants arrested in the first five months of 2014, according to statistics from CBP.
O'Rourke explained:
"Because of our great responsibility in this issue, it is also our job to help those who are already here, to treat them with respect and dignity and try to fix what is happening in their countries—not with police strategies, but with aid programs."He added that some congressmen disagree with the measures announced by President Barack Obama for expeditiously deporting children to their countries of origin.
"I do not believe that this is a solution. Some of us understand why they are fleeing from their countries. We know that it isn't that they want to leave, but that they are forced to do so [by circumstances]. We cannot return them to be killed."The DEA presence in countries like Honduras has been controversial since the killing of four people in May 2011 by police officers in that country and undercover officers of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, who claimed that the victims had connections with drug cartels.
However, in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2013, 57 Congressmen demanded an investigation of the incident in which, it stated, the DEA had a "significant" responsibility in the murder of people who presumably did not maintain any tie with drug activity. Spanish original
Related Translations From Mexico Voices Blog:
- Migrant Children: "We're going to study in the United States; yes, you definitely can there. We won't return to El Salvador";
- Humanitarian Efforts for Central American Refugees: How to Help.
- Migrant Defenders Speak on Their Work.
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