Phoenix cops: 11 smuggled kids found at house

[Angelhair]

Hang him! And then bring the death penalty to screwed up MEXICO!!!!

 

[LilOlLady]

Alone, often lost, more kids cross the border

By Kris Axtman, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / June 25, 2004

HOUSTON
She was thin, vivacious, and lost, looking for her mother in a city she couldn't even locate on a map. The girl from Chiapas was headed to Topeka, Kan., where her mother - an illegal immigrant - was working. But she found herself instead at the Mexican consulate in the dusty border town of Douglas, Ariz., as one of a growing number of children crossing the border alone.

"I asked her if she knew where Topeka was, says Michael Escobar Valdez, the Mexican consul general in Douglas. "She responded, 'Not exactly.' But that didn't matter, she said, because she was going to reach that place somehow."

It's the most emotional part of his job, he says, and every time his cellphone rings, he worries.

The main reason for the increase, say experts like Escobar, is family reunification. As the United States has beefed up security since Sept. 11, illegal immigrants have felt less free to move back and forth across the border.

That disruption of traditional migratory patterns has meant illegal immigrants are staying put in the US instead of risking trips home to see family and friends. But many who left their children behind are now sending for them.
It's one of the unintended consequences of border-enforcement buildup, says Wayne Cornelius director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

"There has been a dramatic decline in circular migration between Mexico and the US as a direct result of this strategy," he says. "Undocumented migrants are staying longer in the US and more of them are settling permanently because we have sharply increased the physical risks and financial cost of coming and going across the southwestern border."

Ironically, Dr. Cornelius adds, the buildup hasn't created an effective deterrent to new entries, but it has given immigrants a strong incentive to do things like send for their children - despite the considerable risks.

While the number of apprehended juveniles (those under age 18) has remained steady at about 85,000 for several years, the number of unaccompanied minors is climbing. Mexican figures show that hundreds more unaccompanied minors were repatriated in 2003 than in 2002 along the 2,000 mile US-Mexican border. In the first five months of 2004, says Escobar, the number of repatriated minors in the Douglas area rose about 27 percent over a similar period last year.

"This is a very scary trend that we have seen over the past several years where unaccompanied minors will be crossing with a group of undocumented immigrants," says Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Washington. "These children have no relatives with them. They don't have any indication of where they are going. But their parents have placed their lives in the smugglers' hands."
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Alone, often lost, more kids cross the border / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com