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These minors cross the border alone to be reunited with their parents

2021-03-23T01:43:31.490Z


Justin, Keiner, Franklin, and Michelle are 10, 11, 16, and 17 years old. They have just arrived in the United States and do not remember or do not know their relatives. They are among the thousands of unaccompanied minors in the custody of the Biden Administration.


ROME, Texas.– They are the toughest face of the growing influx of migrants and also the bitterest drink for the Biden administration in its first crisis on the southern border.

They are unaccompanied minors, children and adolescents who come to the United States alone or without any direct family member. 

[In pictures: this is how migrants are crowded into temporary Border Patrol facilities in Texas]

There are currently almost 16,000 minors in the custody of US authorities:

4,878 in Border Patrol facilities and 10,800 more in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services,

according to official data collected by our sister network NBC News.

They are waiting to be released with a family member or sponsor in the United States.

Some arrive with a name in their head, a phone number written down on a piece of paper, or a state they know by heart: that of their father or mother who already lives in the United States.

What they do not have is a physical memory of that parent, who left when they were very young or had not even been born.

The migration of these minors - we find children as young as 5 years old and as young as 17 - is the cause and consequence of migration itself:

first their parents emigrated and now they emigrate to reunite with their families. 

We spoke to some, all Hondurans, after crossing the Rio Grande.

"I miss my mom"

- Have you been scared?

- Yes.

- Why?

- Because I miss my mom.

I've never been away from her.

10-year-old Justin has been in the United States for half an hour.

He claims to have made the trip alone.

Damià Bonmatí

10-year-old Justin has been in the United States for half an hour.

He is sitting in a parking lot with ten other unaccompanied minors.

The Border Patrol separated them from the rest, a group of about 75 migrants, who entered at night through Roma, Texas.

He claims to have made the trip alone.

No relatives but with three men she met during the journey.

They traveled the distance between Honduras and the United States mainly by car and also a stage by plane, between the Mexican cities of Puebla and Monterrey.

["No one knows what is happening": Migrants arrive at the border with false expectations that the Biden Administration will allow free entry]

"They are some friends that I found and I stuck with them," he says.

One of them broke away before crossing the river;

lonely adults often try to avoid the Border Patrol.

He does not give away the other two, but indicates with his eyes that they are in the group of adults with children on the other side of the parking lot.

"Let us open the door to the US": the message of a migrant child to Biden while he waits in Mexico

March 22, 202101: 46

In his pocket he carries a slip of paper with the phone number of his father, who lives on the East Coast of the United States.

You also know it by heart and can recite it without thinking.

"How long have you not seen your daddy?" 

-Do not know him

–And what are you going to do when you see it?

–Give him a hug, give him a kiss.


He has barely been able to inform his mother about how the road has gone: "I have a phone but it works only with Wi-Fi."

And the father told him that he was coming soon, not to be sad.

When we finish speaking, he rests his head between his knees again.

It's midnight.

"My mom wanted to see me"

Since he was 4 years old, Keiner has not seen his mother, who lives in Florida.

Now, at 11, he is clear about the reason for this journey of weeks from Honduras to Texas: "My mother told me she wanted to see me."

Since he was 4 years old, Keiner has not seen his mother, who lives in Florida.

Now, at 11, he is clear about the reason for this journey of weeks from Honduras to Texas: "My mother told me she wanted to see me."

Damià Bonmatí

He remembers the moment when his life as a child turned upside down, “I was there playing with some friends and my aunt told me 'tomorrow you are going to the United States'.

I was thoughtful and said 'with whom?': 'With your uncle'.

'Ah'.

Then I went to play ”.

His uncle is also a minor, his name is José David and he is 17 years old.

He is sitting next to her.

“I can take it longer, I'm bigger, but for him, I brought medicine and a bottle of water.

He had a fever three times on the way, ”he

recalls now, while he waits for the Border Patrol to take the data.

With the money they brought, they were able to pay for food to Monterrey, Mexico, and from there they had to order.

The oldest says that they managed to cross the Rio Grande by raft and without paying the extortions of the cartels that control the place.

“I told them if they would do me a favor for him.

And they told me: 'I'll do it for him, not for you.'

Thank God they did us the favor of passing us by ”.

Migration crisis: 49% of immigrants detained in Texas are unaccompanied minors

March 22, 202100: 47

"I haven't seen my mom for 10 years"

The worst thing about the trip to the United States was riding La Bestia, says 16-year-old Franklin.

“When we got on the train, our

feet

were frozen.

You suffer a lot, We were like four hours.

I was sorry for my brother ”.

His brother is 14 years old and he listens to him with his head on his knees and with the hood protecting him from the night.

They have done this together, like so many other things since they were kids.

The worst thing about the trip to the United States was riding La Bestia, says 16-year-old Franklin. Caleb Olvera

“We lived alone.

I was in charge of my brother.

We slept alone, we lived alone, we only went to a girl's house to eat.

My mother sent money from the United States.

We have missed her so much.

When we talk to her, when she looks at us, she starts to cry.

It's hard".

Ten years have passed like this.

“From one day to the next, [my mom] told us to get things ready and that we were going out.

And we listened to him, we got things ready and the next day we went out ”.

They grabbed toothpaste, a toothbrush, a first-aid kit, clothes, flip-flops, and a cell phone.

Those belongings have now been reduced to a plastic bag with the logo of the United States Department of Homeland Security and Franklin's name written in marker.

Inside it, only the phone and the charger remain.

"I came alone"

Michelle, a 17-year-old from Honduras, has never hugged her dad.

Imagine that it will be “exciting” to do so, probably in the next few weeks, if the authorities release her with him, who lives in the Northeast.

Her father left for the United States before she was born and now it is she who leaves her mother, with whom she grew up, in Honduras before reaching the age of majority.

It is common to hear that number, 17, among adolescents who cross alone.

For them, it is a figure that gives them confidence not to be returned to Mexico or deported to their countries.

Michelle, a 17-year-old from Honduras, has never hugged her dad.

Imagine that it will be “exciting” to do so.Caleb Olvera

She crossed the border at sunset.

He joined a group of ten migrants, who entered through the Mission, Texas area.

He keeps a wooden crucifix hanging from his neck, a plastic bag with a toothbrush and warm clothes despite the 80 degrees Fahrenheit that falls on these Texas roads.

“You cannot live in my country, there is a lot of crime.

I want a future for myself, ”he

says when he realizes that he is already in the United States.

Despite traveling alone and being so young, she migrated on foot and on buses.

You feel you have made it.

"What I most want is to meet my dad"

History repeats itself with 17-year-old Joel: “I don't remember him [his father] at all.

It's my dream to meet him, ”he says sitting on the side of the road where local Hidalgo agents found him along with other minors and migrant families.

He comes to ask for asylum.

His father left Honduras when he was 4 years old and, although he tries, he cannot have memories of his father figure.

"He has communicated with me and we were crying to have a meeting."

All of his siblings are already on US soil.

He is the one who said the last goodbye to his mother at home.

History repeats itself with 17-year-old Joel: “I don't remember him [his father] at all.

It's my dream to meet him. ”Caleb Olvera

He arrives with pain in his nose, he says it is due to changes in temperature.

And he carries half a gallon of water, he assures that it is the most important thing for him at that moment, to carry that bottle.

Along the way he has met other lonely teenagers like him.

“You create those bonds of friendship and you help each other.

It is very heavy, believe me: sleepless, sometimes we only sleep two hours, or only one, on the floor or on mats in shelters.

Of almost not being able to sleep, one of sick, and we have back or neck pain.

We slept very close ”.

The journalists Caleb Olvera and Edgar Muñoz collaborated in the reporting of this note.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-03-23

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