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Very high' Number of Children Caught in El Paso This Year by Diana Washington Valdez JUAREZ—Gerardo Guzman and Paula Castillo, both 17, are among an increasing number of youths who enter the United States illegally each year, often under dangerous conditions.
Guzman and Castillo, who have been taken to a Mexican government shelter in Juárez, are part of a growing problem. The number of youths seeking to enter the United States for the first four months of the year is "very high" and could signal a worrisome trend, Border Patrol agent Manny Flores said. He said the number of youths of all nationalities apprehended in the El Paso region had fallen in recent years. They range from babies to teenagers traveling with family, being shipped with smugglers or breaking away on their own. "I was traveling with friends who were going to help me get a job in San Jose, California," Castillo said. "I didn't tell my mother that I was going to do this. Some friends invited me to come along, and I said yes without giving it much thought." Guzman, who with Castillo was attending a class at the Centro de Atenciona Menores Fronterizos in Juárez while staying at the government-run center, had managed to get a job picking fruit in California "but that work ended very quickly, and I was traveling around to find more work. I didn't ask my family for permission. I just did it."
After their class, they took a break upstairs in the center's dorms while they waited for lunch in the small dining area. A couple of boys signed out a small pool table to play on, while others giggled and played pranks on each other. Guillermo Macedo, director of the Desarollo Integral Familiar-run center, said a total of 317 adolescent boys and girls were housed at the center last year. The children were repatriated after being intercepted by U.S. immigration authorities. The biggest percentage of the youths, 24 percent, came from the state of Chihuahua, followed by the states of Veracruz, Durango, Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Chiapas, Coahuila and Hidalgo. "We've had some youths who were as young as 14 and 15 who worked as polleros, who were caught helping smuggle people across the U.S. border," said Gilberto Solis, a center official. Infants and toddlers are processed at another center, and teens who are not flight risks are channeled to the YMCA-run center near downtown Juárez. Older and more streetwise teens are given travel vouchers for their trips back home, and bus drivers are asked to look out for them. Hector Acosta Flores, the Mexican consul in El Paso who oversees the protection of Mexican youths, said, "The Estrella Blanca bus company graciously gave us a deep discount for the travel vouchers for these children. In the case of the very young children, or teens who are not judged capable of traveling by themselves, they are kept at the shelters until their relatives come for them. We also give the parents a sermon about the dangers of letting their children take off for the border." U.S. and Mexican border officials said that some of the youths travel to the border in groups led by paid smugglers and that they are in danger of being abandoned in remote desert areas and mixing in with adult strangers. "Most of the older ones come to the United States hoping to get a job of some kind," Border Patrol agent Flores said. "The younger ones usually accompany adults or smugglers who are paid by parents who are already working in the United States. They pay top dollar to get their kids brought to them, anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000." Boys generally outnumber girls 2 to 1, and older teenagers are more likely to travel to the border unaccompanied by adults than younger children. Socorro Guerrero Muñoz, Mexican immigration deputy director in Juãrez for the protection of repatriated citizens, said it's not unusual for her to escort minors from the U.S. side of the Paso del Norte bridge to her office on the Mexican side of the bridge. On Friday, she carried 1-year-old Diego Canales Acosta across the bridge to Mexico, while Alfonso Hernandez, another immigration officer, carried the toddler's diaper bag. Between
January and May 18, the Border Patrol apprehended 537 children who, like Diego, were a year old or younger. The toddler played on Guerrero's desk while another official typed the paperwork for his next stop, a shelter for infants and toddlers. "Sometimes, we have to be mothers, too," she
said. "We see all kinds of things. In 2000, my office investigated
a case involving a woman who lured five very young girls, and was attempting
to take them across the border to the United States. She was a stranger
to them." "We also have had kids, usually from the local area, who cross the border just for the thrill of it, to see if they can do it," Flores said. "They usually decline when we offer them a chance to call their parents." Early last week, the Border Patrol intercepted four Mexican teenagers who were caught immediately after crossing the border at on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. Rosa Morales Ortiz, 16, traveled to the border all the way from Chiapas state and was trying to make her way to Kentucky. She was with a group of people who were walking through the desert when the Border Patrol caught up with them. "This is my first time," she said. "I don't know where we were. It was the desert." |
