According to a newly released United Nations report covered by Univision's Despierta América morning news show, Central American minors running away from violence and poverty are being detained and deported by Mexican authorities before crossing to the United States, something that one Mexican expert on immigration interviewed blames on "the dissemination of Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policies” and Mexico “being docile to the instructions of the United States.”
MARÍA ELENA PAZZI, REPORTER, DESPIERTA AMÉRICA: Juan Martín Pérez, an expert on immigration, ensures that the intolerant anti-immigrant policies of President Donald Trump have been spreading with greater intensity to this country that has been docile to the instructions of the United States.
The U.N. report stated that 60,000 Central American minors were detained in Mexican migrant holding centers or separated from their parents before being deported from the country between 2016 and 2017.
In addition, from January to April this year, in Mexico, nearly ten thousand Central American children were arrested. The U.N. report stressed that these children were detained and deported under the same circumstances of violence and poverty that they emigrated, keeping them unprotected and in the hands of crime.
Pérez, the immigration expert who blamed the Trump Administration policies for the arrests of unaccompanied immigrant minors in Mexico making, in his own words, “a crossing fully controlled by criminal groups and corrupt local authorities,” went on to state that while they “haven't seen cages like the ones shown by the U.S. State Department”, the minors are deprived of liberty in prisons which are in fact migrant holding centers and unaccompanied children under twelve years go to shelters. Furthermore, in 96% of the cases there is no tracking of a repatriation register: “So they do not know if these children are eventually reunited with their families or become prey to organized crime, which keeps them in a circle of adversity and danger.”
In contrast to the oft broadcast videos showcasing the "cages" at U.S. shelters, the Univision report conspicuously failed to show the interior of these Mexican prison/holding centers. It also neglected to mention current statistics on immigrant family reunifications in the U.S. or the fact, as the U.N. report stated, that the United States hosts the largest number of child migrants of any country in the world – some 3.7 million children.
Three years ago, a web report by the same network, dated April 30, 2015, entitled “The Number of Migrant Children Deported by Mexico Grows” stated that “So far in 2015, Mexico has deported 3,819 unaccompanied minors, 56% more than in the same period in 2014.” So, one wonders, who did they blame back then?
Below is the complete transcript of the above-referenced report, as aired during the August 17, 2018 edition of Despierta América.
SATCHA PRETTO, HOST, DESPIERTA AMÉRICA: A call for the protection of children regardless of their immigration status. A United Nations report denounces family separation both in United States and in Mexico, where minors are taken to detention centers and are not allowed to leave until they are deported to their countries of origin. In addition, the report adds that children are exposed to exploitation and abuse. From the Mexican capital, María Elena Pazzi tells us more.
DANIEL, HONDURAN CHILD DETAINED IN MEXICO: There, they treat you badly…
MARIA ELENA PAZZI: 12-year-old Daniel left Honduras in search of a better life in the United States. But when he crossed the southern border of Mexico, immigration authorities there denied him freedom for five months. His family still does not know of his whereabouts.
DANIEL: If we don't follow them, they will punish us.
JOSE BERGUA, REGIONAL ADVISOR, UNICEF: What kind of punishments?
DANIEL: They beat us with a belt.
PAZZI: Daniel joins the almost 60,000 Central American minors who were detained in Mexican migrant holding centers or separated from their parents before being deported from this country between 2016 and 2017, as a report from the United Nations Children Fund denounced.
BERGUA: So when the decision is made to return them their countries it is done in a state of protection and ensuring that they will not suffer further violations of their rights.
PAZZI: Juan Martín Pérez, an expert on immigration, ensures that the intolerant anti-immigrant policies of President Donald Trump have been spreading with greater intensity to this country that has been docile to the instructions of the United States.
JUAN MARTÍN PÉREZ, EXPERT ON IMMIGRATION: We haven't seen cages like the ones shown by the U.S. State Department, but they are deprived of liberty in prisons which are by themselves migrant holding centers and unaccompanied children under twelve years go to shelters.
PAZZI: He says that in 96% of cases, there is no tracking of a repatriation register. So they do not know if these children are eventually reunited with their families or become prey to organized crime, which keeps them in a circle of adversity and danger.
PÉREZ: The crossing is fully controlled by criminal groups and corrupt local authorities.
PAZZI: From January to April this year, in this country, nearly ten thousand Central American children were arrested. The report stresses that these children were detained and deported under the same circumstances of violence and poverty that they emigrated, keeping them unprotected and in the hands of crime. In Mexico City, María Elena Pazzi, Univision.
