The Mexican-American border has been a very dangerous path to take if one decides to enter the United States illegally. There have been reports about drug syndicates killing people who get in their way and, most of the time, the illegal immigrants get caught in the middle of a drug war. What is even dangerous is kids taking risk of crossing the border without adult companions.
According to reports by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, over 10,000 minors have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border for the past two months. There is a 106 percent increase in figures from last year, between the months of October and November.
The current announcement made by President Barack Obama's new strategy to allow children from Central America to enter the United Stated with a refugee status is meant to discourage minors not to cross the border illegally to avoid getting victims of various crimes from different syndicates that are operational around the area.
"These children are some of the most vulnerable, and many become victims of violent crime or sexual abuse," stated in a statement by the White House, when Obama urged FEMA to address the issue, stating "urgent humanitarian situation."
Arrests of people with children trying to cross the border have risen as well up to 173 percent, with 12,505 apprehensions compared to 4,577 last year in just two months. U.S. officials are now giving assumptions as to why these people are leaving their county that bad and putting their life in grave danger on the process.
"There has to be some reason why people want to leave their home countries, particularly with kids," said Wendy Young, president of Washington's Kids in Need of Defense, DC's non-profit group. Clearly, the ongoing war between drug cartels and gang violence in most of the nations in Central America are driving people away hoping to get a better life in the United States, as per NBC News.
"Families are making that incredibly heartbreaking decision to say if I'm going to protect my child from this, I'm going to have to send them out, because the governments are too weak or too corrupt to control the violence," she added.
According to the news outlet, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson stated that they are doing their best to secure the borders and make sure the numbers of immigrants try to cross the country illegally would no longer increase "while ensuring that those with legitimate humanitarian claims are afforded the opportunity to seek protection."
