Immigrant Children Are Crossing the Border to Avoid Drug Wars

“The Children of Drug Wars” is one of the recent article titles from the New York Times. It starts off telling the story of an 11 year old boy that has had his father and countless others taken from him by the gangs that rule the streets in Honduras. The boy tells the story of a girl close to his age that resisted being robbed of the $5 that she had, so the two men robbing her hit her in the head with a club, and then dragged her around the corner where they cut a hole in her throat and shoved her underwear in the hole. The boy says that he is going to attempt the trip to the US, no matter what.

This is the kind of violence that children in Central America are facing every single day. Schools, the streets, and even the government are completely overrun by drug lords. When something goes wrong there is no point in calling the police because it is a well-known fact that the police could kill you and not be asked a single question. Honduras is the definition of corruption right now, and these immigrant children are crossing the border because of the violence that has no boundaries. As bad as the violence is for men and boys, it is exponentially worse for women. 40% of the children that have come to the US in recent months are girls, up from 27% from recent years.

The article suggests that the issue at the US Mexico border isn’t an immigration crisis, but rather a refugee crisis. It suggests that the US take notes from other countries and learn how to handle the influx of people seeking asylum. Not only are people coming to the US, but they are also going to less violent Central American countries. These people are doing everything they can to escape the terrors that are their daily lives. Michelle Brane, director of the migrant rights and justice program at the Women’s Refugee commission states so simply that, “if a house is burning, people will jump out the window.” That is exactly what these children are doing.