Central America Illegal Immigration
(MCC Research paper)
Astera He Anran
Freeman Academy
January 19, 2015
Central America Illegal Immigration
A 14-year-old girl, Audelina Aguilar, who lives in rural areas of Guatemala, left her
family and parents, starting out alone on her six-week cross-border travel. She caught a train all
the way from Chiapas, southern Mexico, to Tamaulipas, northern Mexico. On her way, she was
almost raped; however, there was a woman who saw it and shouted, “She is just a child.” This
helped Audelina escape from her nightmare. She walked four days in the sparsely populated
wilderness area of south Texas, just to avoid encountering people who wanted to hurt her (Lin).
Desperate Central American parents are attempting to provide a better life for their
children, so they are sending them illegally to the United States, in spite of the dangers, creating
a situation where the United States needs to ensure the children are well cared for and to create
immigration organizations and legislation to help them.
According to a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center report, there are 57% of illegal immigrants
from Mexico, 24% from the Central America, 9% from Asia, 6% from Europe and Canada, and
the rest of the 3% of them from Africa in (Passel). Illegal entry, visa overstays, and Border
Crossing Card violations are the three ways that people illegally immigrate from outside of the
States. In 2014, there were tens of thousands of women and children who came to the United
States by crossing the Rio Grande from Central America (Hulse). In 2014, the US border officers
arrested 87,000 children. This figure is almost twice that last year (Lin). Some of these children
came with one of their parents or relatives, but most of them came by themselves without any
acquaintances. A report showed that about 52,000 children were caught at the Southwest border
without their parents from January to October, 2014, and these children are called the
Unaccompanied Children (Hulse).
Central America countries have many problems that cause many families to choose to
send their children illegally into the United States. Every parent, of course, wants their children
to have a better life; therefore, they will do whatever it takes to change their children’s life.
Economic and educational problems are the biggest and most important motivation for the
parents sending their children to the United States. Children in the Central America do not have
enough financial support for schooling, and schools do not have enough financial support for
teachers and staff. The families do not even have enough money for basic living expenses, so
they cannot spend money for their children education (Gans). Many people who live in Central
America do not have enough food or clean water for each day. Dirty, chaotic, and poor could
well describe the life they are living every day.
Less security is another problem that causes people to want to run away from their
country. Poor people often are threatened to give lots of money as their protection money to the
criminal syndicate. If they refuse to or do not have enough money to give, then the syndicate will
kill them or threaten their children by forcing them to join. These families do not feel safe, and
they face death by murder every day.
Illegal merchandise activities influence people’s lives in Central America. There are
many illegal drugs being sold in those countries. Many young people always experience drug
overdo. When a family decides to illegally send their children to the United Sates, there are many
more dangers that might happen on the way to their new life. Murdering, stealing, death,
diseases, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking could harm these poor children.
In June 2014, the Unites States Department of Justice issued a statement that the federal
government would issue two million dollars to provide a hundred lawyers to help the rising
number of illegally immigrated undocumented children (Semple). President Obama said that the
congressional appropriations would be allocated to the Department of Homeland Security,
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Ministry of Justice, the State Department, the
Department of Health and Human Services and other departments to strengthen border patrols
and surveillance equipment to combat border crime networks, add more resettlement places, and
increase more illegal immigrants judges to be in charge of these cases (Qian). The U.S. deals
with the illegal immigrants from Central America and from Mexico very differently. Under U.S.
law, illegal immigrants from Mexico can be immediately forced back to their own country after
arrest, but the illegal immigrants from Central America who get arrested must check with the
USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) about whether they can apply for
legal residency in order to decide whether to stay or to return (Ma).
It is true that there are many United States citizens who oppose immigrants coming into
the States and who are against what Obama and the government have decided about illegal
immigration from Central America. If more immigrants come to the United States, there will be
less welfare, such as medical treatment welfare, economic welfare, and land welfare from the
government, for U.S. citizens. Quality of life, protection from unemployment and job
competition, and all such things will not be guaranteed. United States might lose its own culture
and traditions.
On the other hand, Russell Moore, the president of Ethics and Religious Liberty
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention said, “The first thing is to make sure we
understand these are not issues, these are persons. These children are made in the image of God,
and we ought to respond to them with compassion, not with fear. There are many different
religious groups that are trying to support the undocumented children by offering food, a place to
stay, and some legal services” (Paulson). Believers are showing kindness and mercy to those who
need help and are attempting to follow God’s will (“How should”). The MCC U.S.A. ( United
States Mennonite Central Committee) immigration education coordinator, Saulo Padilla believes
that“this is continuing our invitation to welcome the stranger, to open our hearts – and to see
the image of God in all who are coming and to receive them” (Lester).
As Christians, we should not only help immigrants after they have decided to migrate
illegally and are caught by the government, but also help them when they are still at home. There
are three steps to help them and form an attachment between the United States and Central
America. Two words to summarize the two ways are education and legislation.
First, the US can help supply qualified teachers for kindergartens to colleges. The
government of Central America has to guarantee that every child can go to school, whether they
have money problems or family problems. People should remember that no matter how poor
they are, they should not be poor in education. The United States could start and support study
abroad programs, programs which are not only for the wealthy but also can be afford by the poor.
Central American schools could send children to the States as exchange students, and also the
U.S. could send children to Central American schools. In this way, the Central American kids
could know what the world looks like and could gain power to study hard; the U.S. kids could
gain an understanding regarding children their age who do not even have clean water but have a
thirst for knowledge.
Second, bringing more good legislation to Central America could help to ensure that the
local residents have full legal capacity such as the equal rights in their own countries and could
provide a new start for the country to begin to grow. Making laws and teaching people to do the
right thing is what the Bible teaches us to do. The Bible says, “The LORD detests the way of the
wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness” (Proverbs 15:9).
At the same time, the United States should clearly be giving the best security and care
after the USCIS finds the illegally immigrated children. Because of the large growth of illegally
immigrated children, the detention centers have been full for a long time. Children who get
caught and put in those centers do not have much food to eat and no place to rest. They are dirty,
helpless, and homesick. We should stand up and use the money in the right place. We need to be
helping them by building more centers for children to stay, providing more food for children to
eat, and offering more counselors to enlighten those poor undocumented kids.
We should not only come up with solutions about how to protect illegal immigrate
children after they come to the United States, but also work to aiding their countries with
problems such as economics, security, and education. Our biggest goal is to improve their lives.
Works Cited
Gans, Judith. “Illegal Immigration to the United States: Causes and Policy Solutions.” Udall
Center for Studies in Public Policy. 3 February 2007. Web. 8 November 2014.
“How should a Christian respond to illegal aliens/illegal immigrants?” GotQuestions.org. nd.
Web. 8 November 2014.
Hulse, Carl. “Immigrant Surge Rooted in Law to Curb Child Trafficking.” New York Times. 7 July
2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Lester, Marla Pierson. “MCC responds to Central American migration.” MCC.org. 10 September
2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Lin, YH, ed. “A Record High Figure of Central American Child Cross-Border Alone into the
United States.” BuzzOrgange.com. 2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Ma, Yinhui, ed. “Responding to influx of illegal immigrants, Obama requests 2 billion
emergency funding.” Epochtimes.com. 2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Passel, Jeffrey. “Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population.” Pew
Hispanic Center. 7 May 2006. Web. 8 November 2014.
Paulson, Michael. “U.S. Religious Leaders Embrace Cause of Immigrant Children.” New York
Times. 23 July 2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Qian, Xu, ed. “Obama seeking funds for $ 3.7 billion to accelerate the repatriation of illegal
immigrants in Central America.” XinHuaNet.com. 2014. Web. 8 November 2014.
Semple, Kirk. “Youths Facing Deportation to Be Given Legal Counsel.” New York Times. 6
June 2014. Web. 8 November 2014.