Go time: Illegals rushing border fearing U.S. crackdown

Paul Bedard
September 16, 2014
Wasington Examiner

The summer lull in illegal border crossings from Mexico is about to give way to a rush of even more immigrants in a frenzy of fear that Washington is about to shut the door, according to several Hispanic leaders.

In Honduras, for example, U.S. threats coupled with those from local leaders warning about the dangers of crossing the border have instead reenergized children and adults to run fast to America and pay inflated fees to “coyotes” to get them there.

“As I am speaking, hundreds of children are trying to leave Honduras,” said Jose Guadalupe Ruelas, a Honduran leader who advocates for children. “When people in Honduras hear that the U.S. is going to get stricter with immigration rules and laws then people think to themselves, ‘Now is the time for me to go,’” he said through an interpreter.

Ruelas and several other Hispanic leaders met in Washington on Tuesday after spending a week in Latin nations responsible for sending over 50,000 children across the U.S. border this year. Officials expect another 145,000 next year.

He and several of the others blamed domestic crime and U.S. policies, notably a lack of social spending in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, for the wave of some 90,000 illegals, mostly youths, into America this year.

Ruelas added that deportation typically backfires. “Every time a child is deported back to their country, they gain more experience and they will return,” he said.

Oscar A. Chacon, executive director of the Nation Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities, scoffed at U.S. claims that border officials have choked off the flow of illegals since it peaked in July.

He said that summer months are too hot for people to make the trip and he said it will begin again in fall unless the U.S. shifts its policies in Latin America.

“If the root causes that are driving people to make that sad choice of having to immigrate despite all the risk, despite all the fear, are not addressed,” he warned, “we may well be seeing chapter one of a book of many chapters.”

At a press conference, Abel Nunez, executive director of the Central American Resource Center, also demanded that U.S. officials pay to give illegal youths and adults legal representation at immigration hearings and called on Congress to pass what amounts to open border legislation.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].