Immigrant Children Face Trials and Heartbreak to Cross the Border
Eastern Group Publications, Feature, Yolanda Sansegundo, Posted: Nov 22, 2004
TIJUANA -- A 17-year old girl sleeps on a bunk bed, wrapped with a blanket, exhausted after her failure to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana. Her baby, 6 months old, was luckier. A woman was able to cross him into the United States using fake documents. They say it is always easier for the newborns.
While her son, who is still breast-feeding, meets up with his father in Los Angeles, the young mother tells Matilde, a social worker, how desperate she feels not knowing how or when she will see her family again.
But she is not unique. Every day, dozens of under-aged immigrants risk their lives to cross the border in order to reunite with their families or to start a new life in the U.S.
Some achieve it. Others don’t.
More than 40,000 Mexican minors are detained every year by immigration officials while trying to cross the border into the United States. Many of the unsuccessful children are taken to shelters such as the Casa YMCA de Menores Migrantes in Tijuana, where Matilde has worked for years.
“We feed them and offer them a place to sleep, but we also help them to recover their emotional stability and track their relatives,” says Matilde.
On average, 3,000 minors between 11 and 17 years old arrive at Casa YMCA every year. They can stay in the shelter for a maximum of 8 days or until their families are located.
Other teenagers are not so fortunate. In 2003, 11 children died while crossing the border. So far, in 2004, there are already 17 dead minors, according to the Casa YMCA’s coordinator, Uriel Gonzalez.
The most dangerous way to cross to the U.S. is through the desert. A lot of immigrants have died of dehydration or animal attacks. Other risks are assaults, robberies, and sexual assaults.
That’s why many families pay a coyote to cross their children. However, since the 1990s the price to cross with the help of a coyote has skyrocketed because of increased immigration enforcement at the San Diego border.
“Coyotes are like travel agencies that charge between $1,000 and $3,000 per person depending on the final destination,” Gonzalez says.
Many children also attempt to cross by showing fake IDs or hiding inside the car trunks. Desperation has pushed some immigrants to try more and more sophisticated ways to cross. Recently a 4-year old girl was found by the authorities in Tecate, hidden inside a piñata while her mother and brother, 9, hid on the floor of the vehicle.
After being caught by immigration officials, some of the minors do not try to cross the border again, but others keep trying until they finally make it across. “Those with family in the U.S. are the ones who try to cross more times,” says Maria Martinez, 50, who has lived and worked at Casa YMCA with her husband, Braulio Chavez, for 10 years.
Chavez and Martinez are the “familia anfitriona” or host family. “We try to create a family environment where the teens feel comfortable,” says Maria while she cooks dinner for the under-aged youth.
Casa YMCA is not the only immigrant shelter in Tijuana. Fifteen minutes away, there are Centro Madre Assunta, for females, and Casa del Migrante, for males.
In most circumstances, these other shelters, although primarily set up to assist adults, will try to help minors attempting to cross the border with their family, as in the case of Ricardo Aguilar, age 12. He slept in Casa del Migrante for eight days with his mother’s boyfriend while his mother stays at Centro Madre Assunta, only a block away.
This is the first time Ricardo has ever left his town in Michuacan. He says he is not scared, but his restless eyes and nervous gestures seem to contradict him.
After losing his father to a brain tumor two years ago, Ricardo’s mother went to the United States to make some money. She stayed there for eight months where she met her current boyfriend. Together they returned to Mexico to get Ricardo and bring him to live with them in the U.S.
“My (new) daddy has crossed to the U.S. three times through Tijuana’s beaches so I am not afraid of crossing with him because he knows the way,” says the 12 year-old.
Ricardo admits he wants to live in the United States “because over there you are safe, you don’t suffer and you have everything.” Ricardo dreams of becoming a doctor or teacher when he grows up, No one knows yet whether his dreams will become true.
First, he’ll have to get across the border and into the U.S.
Related Stories:
Misguided Border Policy Continues With Triple Fence, Activists Say
African Americans Propose Far-Reaching Immigration Reform
Migrants and Activists Slam U.S. Border 'Operation' on 10-year Anniversary
The Border < NCM Coverage
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