Central America Illegal Immigration

Transcription

1 Central America Illegal Immigration (MCC Research paper) Astera He Anran Freeman Academy January 19, 2015

2 Central America Illegal Immigration A 14-year-old girl, Audelina Aguilar, who lives in rural areas of Guatemala, left her family and parents, starting out alone on her six-week cross-border travel. She caught a train all the way from Chiapas, southern Mexico, to Tamaulipas, northern Mexico. On her way, she was almost raped; however, there was a woman who saw it and shouted, She is just a child. This helped Audelina escape from her nightmare. She walked four days in the sparsely populated wilderness area of south Texas, just to avoid encountering people who wanted to hurt her (Lin). Desperate Central American parents are attempting to provide a better life for their children, so they are sending them illegally to the United States, in spite of the dangers, creating a situation where the United States needs to ensure the children are well cared for and to create immigration organizations and legislation to help them. According to a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center report, there are 57% of illegal immigrants from Mexico, 24% from the Central America, 9% from Asia, 6% from Europe and Canada, and the rest of the 3% of them from Africa in (Passel). Illegal entry, visa overstays, and Border Crossing Card violations are the three ways that people illegally immigrate from outside of the States. In 2014, there were tens of thousands of women and children who came to the United States by crossing the Rio Grande from Central America (Hulse). In 2014, the US border officers arrested 87,000 children. This figure is almost twice that last year (Lin). Some of these children came with one of their parents or relatives, but most of them came by themselves without any acquaintances. A report showed that about 52,000 children were caught at the Southwest border without their parents from January to October, 2014, and these children are called the Unaccompanied Children (Hulse). Central America countries have many problems that cause many families to choose to

3 send their children illegally into the United States. Every parent, of course, wants their children to have a better life; therefore, they will do whatever it takes to change their children s life. Economic and educational problems are the biggest and most important motivation for the parents sending their children to the United States. Children in the Central America do not have enough financial support for schooling, and schools do not have enough financial support for teachers and staff. The families do not even have enough money for basic living expenses, so they cannot spend money for their children education (Gans). Many people who live in Central America do not have enough food or clean water for each day. Dirty, chaotic, and poor could well describe the life they are living every day. Less security is another problem that causes people to want to run away from their country. Poor people often are threatened to give lots of money as their protection money to the criminal syndicate. If they refuse to or do not have enough money to give, then the syndicate will kill them or threaten their children by forcing them to join. These families do not feel safe, and they face death by murder every day. Illegal merchandise activities influence people s lives in Central America. There are many illegal drugs being sold in those countries. Many young people always experience drug overdo. When a family decides to illegally send their children to the United Sates, there are many more dangers that might happen on the way to their new life. Murdering, stealing, death, diseases, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking could harm these poor children. In June 2014, the Unites States Department of Justice issued a statement that the federal government would issue two million dollars to provide a hundred lawyers to help the rising number of illegally immigrated undocumented children (Semple). President Obama said that the congressional appropriations would be allocated to the Department of Homeland Security,

4 Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Ministry of Justice, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and other departments to strengthen border patrols and surveillance equipment to combat border crime networks, add more resettlement places, and increase more illegal immigrants judges to be in charge of these cases (Qian). The U.S. deals with the illegal immigrants from Central America and from Mexico very differently. Under U.S. law, illegal immigrants from Mexico can be immediately forced back to their own country after arrest, but the illegal immigrants from Central America who get arrested must check with the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) about whether they can apply for legal residency in order to decide whether to stay or to return (Ma). It is true that there are many United States citizens who oppose immigrants coming into the States and who are against what Obama and the government have decided about illegal immigration from Central America. If more immigrants come to the United States, there will be less welfare, such as medical treatment welfare, economic welfare, and land welfare from the government, for U.S. citizens. Quality of life, protection from unemployment and job competition, and all such things will not be guaranteed. United States might lose its own culture and traditions. On the other hand, Russell Moore, the president of Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention said, The first thing is to make sure we understand these are not issues, these are persons. These children are made in the image of God, and we ought to respond to them with compassion, not with fear. There are many different religious groups that are trying to support the undocumented children by offering food, a place to stay, and some legal services (Paulson). Believers are showing kindness and mercy to those who need help and are attempting to follow God s will ( How should ). The MCC U.S.A. ( United

5 States Mennonite Central Committee) immigration education coordinator, Saulo Padilla believes that this is continuing our invitation to welcome the stranger, to open our hearts and to see the image of God in all who are coming and to receive them (Lester). As Christians, we should not only help immigrants after they have decided to migrate illegally and are caught by the government, but also help them when they are still at home. There are three steps to help them and form an attachment between the United States and Central America. Two words to summarize the two ways are education and legislation. First, the US can help supply qualified teachers for kindergartens to colleges. The government of Central America has to guarantee that every child can go to school, whether they have money problems or family problems. People should remember that no matter how poor they are, they should not be poor in education. The United States could start and support study abroad programs, programs which are not only for the wealthy but also can be afford by the poor. Central American schools could send children to the States as exchange students, and also the U.S. could send children to Central American schools. In this way, the Central American kids could know what the world looks like and could gain power to study hard; the U.S. kids could gain an understanding regarding children their age who do not even have clean water but have a thirst for knowledge. Second, bringing more good legislation to Central America could help to ensure that the local residents have full legal capacity such as the equal rights in their own countries and could provide a new start for the country to begin to grow. Making laws and teaching people to do the right thing is what the Bible teaches us to do. The Bible says, The LORD detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness (Proverbs 15:9). At the same time, the United States should clearly be giving the best security and care

6 after the USCIS finds the illegally immigrated children. Because of the large growth of illegally immigrated children, the detention centers have been full for a long time. Children who get caught and put in those centers do not have much food to eat and no place to rest. They are dirty, helpless, and homesick. We should stand up and use the money in the right place. We need to be helping them by building more centers for children to stay, providing more food for children to eat, and offering more counselors to enlighten those poor undocumented kids. We should not only come up with solutions about how to protect illegal immigrate children after they come to the United States, but also work to aiding their countries with problems such as economics, security, and education. Our biggest goal is to improve their lives.

7 Works Cited Gans, Judith. Illegal Immigration to the United States: Causes and Policy Solutions. Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy. 3 February Web. 8 November How should a Christian respond to illegal aliens/illegal immigrants? GotQuestions.org. nd. Web. 8 November Hulse, Carl. Immigrant Surge Rooted in Law to Curb Child Trafficking. New York Times. 7 July Web. 8 November Lester, Marla Pierson. MCC responds to Central American migration. MCC.org. 10 September Web. 8 November Lin, YH, ed. A Record High Figure of Central American Child Cross-Border Alone into the United States. BuzzOrgange.com Web. 8 November Ma, Yinhui, ed. Responding to influx of illegal immigrants, Obama requests 2 billion emergency funding. Epochtimes.com Web. 8 November Passel, Jeffrey. Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population. Pew Hispanic Center. 7 May Web. 8 November Paulson, Michael. U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Immigrant Children. New York Times. 23 July Web. 8 November Qian, Xu, ed. Obama seeking funds for $ 3.7 billion to accelerate the repatriation of illegal immigrants in Central America. XinHuaNet.com Web. 8 November Semple, Kirk. Youths Facing Deportation to Be Given Legal Counsel. New York Times. 6 June Web. 8 November 2014.