MISSISON, Texas – Children under the age of five are sent to the Rio Grande with nothing but clothes on their backs and a phone number, which sometimes fills their stomachs.
If they relate it to a past of churning, green water, they lift up steep embankments, dodge rattling snakes in the brush and say one thing when they confront a law enforcement officer: “Give me a Los Estados Unidos or “I’m going.” to the United States.”
The Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Constable’s office, which patrols the popular migrant crossing point in the brush behind Ezalduas Park in Mission, Texa, sees it on a daily basis amid a crush of migrants growing on the southern border.
“Every group or every other group you see yourself will have a child,” said the sergeant. Roger Rich on Thursday night during a ride with The Post as he and a crew team worked at Operation Stonegarden, a federal grant program that funds local law enforcement units to assist with border security measures. Used to give
“I mean, it’s heartbreaking, you know, poor little kid. I just can’t do what a parent can do,” he went on.
“I don’t care how bad it gets. There is no way that I can send my child by myself. I could not do that. You know, even if I am arrested or shot or killed, I am going to go with them. I am not going to send them myself. no way in hell.”
Last March, former President Donald Trump implemented Title 42, which allowed US Customs and Border Protection to immediately remove any migrants, even children, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 – But when President Biden took office, he ended the practice with children.
As of February, 29,792 underrepresented children have crossed the border without their parents since October and 2,942 of them were under 12, CBP data show. This number is roughly equal to the total number of all children who crossed all in 2020 and the number of 9,457 who crossed in February alone was almost double the number seen in January.
The bulk of the children are coming to the Rio Grande Valley, the entire southwest border, accounting for about 40 percent of all non-crossing crossings, CBP data show.
Biden has received harsh criticism for dealing with the situation as children forced to rot in the same “cage” were widely lured to Trump – something the new Potts vowed never to allow again was.
Temporary sites used for children, which usually consist of home adults, are crowded, prison-like facilities, where children are forced to live for more than 72 hours as required by law because The Department of Health and Human Services does not have the ability to house them.
Rich said Tuesday that he faces a 10-year-old visit from Bolivia, with a group of adults he doesn’t know, who later ended up in that type of facility.
“He said ‘he’s from himself’ [and I said] ‘What are you kidding me? “Dhani met again.
“When we asked ‘How did he get here?” People said that we found him on the side of the road so we brought him with us, he said that he was going to Estados Unidos, United States, so they brought him along. ”
In previous years, Rich’s team would have seen more than a handful of migrants every night, but in between hikes, at least a hundred were found in each shift, sometimes 300 in a span of a few hours, many of them children traveling. Are alone.
Sometimes, the parents part with the children on the Mexican side of the river, but other times, send them out completely alone, Rich explained.
On Thursday, The Post met Michele Rubio Sandowal, age 17, who himself traveled for 16 days 1,500 miles from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, devastated by gang violence.
“I want a future for myself and I haven’t got a single one in my country because there’s too much crime in my country,” Sandoval, a large-scale group of migrants, stood on a dirt road near him. Rio Grande was explained in a low voice.
“[During the trip north], You go hungry there, you can’t sleep, sometimes you walk for hours without sleeping, and if you do that, then it is on the ground. ”
Kishore’s hometown has been broken up by rival gangs of MS-13 and Barrio 18, which helped to earn the undisclosed title of “Murder Capital” in 2013.
Since then, the homeownership rate has come down to around 41.7 per 100,000, but it is still the most dangerous country in Central America behind El Salvador where young women are affected by rape and sexual harassment, UN data shows.
Sandoval, who was not carrying anything with her after entering the US, did not even know what the world meant by “asilo” or “asylum”, but The Post reported that he was in Virginia with his father Was to reunite with.
“My plan…. It is to study and graduate and then get a job.”
When asked what she wanted to study, Sandoval smiled.
“I want to be a doctor.”
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