A child rights advocate in Honduras says the United States should expect minors to continue to illegally cross into the country as long as American and Honduran political leaders remain focused on border security instead of addressing the root causes of migration.
More than 66,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed illegally into the United States this year from Central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Many of the children turn themselves in at the border in order to be placed into detention and, hopefully, reunited with family members living in the U.S.
The Obama administration is working to expedite the deportation of Central American minors apprehended at the border, in order to send the message to others that newcomers won’t be allowed to stay. The president has also delayed a promised reworking of his record-setting deportation policy.
But JosÉ Guadalupe Ruelas, director of the NGO Casa Alianza Honduras, told The Huffington Post that focusing on getting these young people out of the U.S. isn't the answer. “The question we have to ask ourselves is ‘why do the people leave?’” Ruelas said. “It’s never been as difficult, as expensive or as dangerous to emigrate [to the United States] as now. But as long as we don’t solve the problem of employment, of violence, of crime, people will continue to come.”
[For more of this story, written by Roque Planas, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...risis_n_5797130.html]
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