child migrants that are not accompanied
By maximax8
@maximax8 (31042)
United Kingdom
March 25, 2011 9:31am CST
I watched a documentary about children trying to ride a freight train up through Mexico and that wanted to get over the USA border illegally. Two of the children they showed were just 9 nine years old. The other children were 13 years old, 14 years old and 16 years old. It was so dangerous jumping on a moving train and then climbing to the roof. Going along they had to duck down to avoid trees and tunnels. At night in the darkness it looked really scary. They had to pass through check points. The saddest point in the program was at the funeral of a 16 year old that had been found dead in the Arizona Desert. Some of the children have been taken to America by people smugglers. A lady paid $3,000 to a people smuggler to bring her grandson up to her in California. She didn't realize that many of the children die on their way up to America entering it illegally. Some of the children had a relative living in America. Lots of the children got caught and went to a child detention center before they got deported back to where they had come from.
What do you think?
1 person likes this
6 responses
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
29 Mar 11
It is sad that children have to go through something like this just to get a better life. And to think that doing this isn't really sure. Yes, that there will be a lot more opportunities in America, but still they lose a part of their childhood.
I wish their parents would do something about this. Make their lives better wherever they are, or at least stop them from going through this.
@sashakiddo (1102)
• United States
27 Mar 11
I saw this one too! It's Which Way Home, right? I cried watching this because I never really knew what it was like to be a child illegal immigrant. It's so horrible what the coyotes do to children. They make themselves seem so benevolent because they are helping people reach their destination, but in many cases they're just taking the family's money and abusing children.
The children on the train were so mature for their age. I can't imagine myself trying to get across the country at such an age.
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
25 Mar 11
I recall seeing this programme a while back,about the 2 young boys together on the roof of a train trying to get to the US and get over the border..The scariest part about the train journey for me was when one of the other people there alone with the same intentions had gone to sleep on the roof one night,and wasn't to be found next day..they presumed he'd fallen from the train during the night to whatever fate...The boys made it to the border,but were taken to a deportation centre,as I recall..It's sad that people can't make a life for themselves in their own country,but have to take dangerous risks to get somewhere with better prospects..
@ersmommy1 (12587)
• United States
25 Mar 11
It really is sad. To lose your life in the effort to come to America. Whatever the reason it's just tragic.
@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
27 Mar 11
No matter what their age, illegal immigrants are a big problem here in the United States. Most, if not all, states are running in the red. Millions of dollars have been cut from the school budgets, because the money isn't there. Programs intended to prevent child abuse have been cut. Many other welfare programs have been cut back or eliminated because the government has no money. Mexican women cross into the U.S. just to deliver their baby. That child is automatically a U.S. citizen because he/she was born on U.S. soil. The state pays the hospital bill. Mother and child start drawing Medicaid, food stamps, and a housing allowance. Mother sends for her other 9 kids, whom we have to educate in special classes because they can't speak
English. Had the children you mentioned not been sent back to Mexico, they would have been added to our already overburdened school system.
@albto_568 (1268)
• Costa Rica
26 Mar 11
It is a sad situation, specially for the danger all this children are exposed to, sometimes this people, the people smugglers who are criminals, steal them, abuse of them, and even kill them, most of times, they abandon them and keeps the money. The so called "american dream" is irresistible for some people, especially when they live in extreme poverty, and not only children but adults, are willing to risk their lives to seek a better future in the US.
