Author Topic: A Dangerous Dream  (Read 216 times)

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A Dangerous Dream
« on: July 14, 2019, 12:12:24 pm »
Houston Chronicle by Silvia Foster-Frau and Dudley Althaus 7/14/2019

Convinced a better life awaited them in the U.S., they set out from remote Guatemalan villages, their toddlers in tow. They entrusted their fate to smugglers. In the dense brush near the Rio Grande, something went terribly wrong.

CHIQUIRINES, Guatemala — All three were mothers.

In May and June, they set out separately from villages nestled among the banana and oil palm groves of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast.

Two of them were accompanied by their husbands; a third planned to meet hers in Los Angeles.

In leaving behind their homes, friends and loved ones, they were guided by a set of commonly held assumptions. In Guatemala, they were poor and always would be. In the U.S., they would find opportunities undreamt of back home.

This was the received wisdom, and it told them something else: to bring their children with them. If they did, they believed they would be treated more leniently at the U.S. border. After surrendering to Border Patrol agents, they could expect to be released from custody quickly, with a notice to appear before authorities at a later date.

And so all three women brought their children on the journey, five in all: three girls and two boys. The oldest was 11, the youngest 15 months.

Unlike thousands of migrants, these three families were not driven from their homeland by famine or persecution. Their villages had not been gripped by gang violence.

Rather, it was a sense of futility, of thwarted aspiration, that propelled them, family members said.

“In the city, there’s violence. In the countryside, there’s poverty,” said Adalberto Aguilar, a brother of one of the women, Neyli Aguilar, 35. “The only option is to live the American dream.”

Their dream ended in a thicket on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande in South Texas. There, one of the mothers, Briseyda Chicas, 20, and three of the children were found dead on June 23. It appears they became disoriented in the dense scrubland and succumbed to heat exposure, authorities said.

Their remains were discovered just west of McAllen, in a wildlife refuge encircled by a gravel road used by the Border Patrol. The location is a short walk from a popular riverfront park that President Donald Trump visited in January to promote his immigration crackdown.

The two other mothers — Neyli and Yaquelín Reyes, 20 — were rescued by Border Patrol agents, taken to a hospital and later placed in detention.

Briseyda’s and Neyli’s husbands had crossed the river safely days earlier, each with one of the children. They are now with relatives in Missouri and Arkansas, awaiting immigration court hearings and possible deportation.

As they wait for the remains of the dead to be returned and the fate of the living to be decided, the women’s relatives in Guatemala struggle with regrets and recriminations. Why did they expose small children to such danger, neighbors ask.

Rescues and deaths of migrants along the southern border are on the rise. So far this fiscal year, the Border Patrol has made 3,400 rescues, a senior official said in Senate testimony. In one recent week, 12 migrants died trying to cross the border in the Rio Grande Valley sector, the prime corridor for those entering the country without documents.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/No-other-solution-With-children-in-tow-a-14088409.php