In Central America, Child Migrants Now Face Perils Alone

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Youths like these from across Central America are increasingly migrating by themselves to Mexico, hoping to connect with relatives and find jobs in the US.

“Five years ago, migrant children did not come [here] by themselves,” says Fermina Rodriguez, a local human rights coordinator in Tapachula.

The trend concerns human rights advocates because they say that children are far less prepared to deal with the physical exhaustion, extortion, and violence that often greet the Central American migrants as they make their way through the back roads of Mexico to the US. And while many adult migrants quickly move north to the US border, children often linger before moving onward, creating local anger as they loiter in public spaces and, some say, contribute to crime.

‘Rite of passage’

“It is such an ingrained solution [for a better life]. It’s almost their duty. I’ve been calling it a rite of passage,” says Betsy Wier, the manager of program development for Central America for Catholic Relief Services who oversaw a nine-month project on youths migrating alone that will be published soon. The study showed that unaccompanied migrants are often robbed, extorted, and intimidated—both during their journey and once in custody of immigration authorities.

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Her research, compiled from government figures documenting minors repatriated to their home countries, showed that the number of youths migrating alone has risen by about 1,000 children each year since 2004: from 3,000 to over 5,000 last year.

Mexico’s National Migration Institute estimates that, on average, 30 minors are being sent back to their home country each day: there have been 4,577 cases from January through May. Three-quarters are boys.

The rise in child migration is driven in large part by the desire to reunite with family, say observers. Like their Mexican counterparts, many Central American children have been left with aging grandparents or distant relatives, while their parents work in the US.

When a parent’s economic situation stabilizes in the US, he or she will often contract a smuggler to bring the child, sometimes as young as 4 or 5, from Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador—especially now that increased security along the US-Mexico border means that taking the trip is riskier.

But most of the migrants, according to advocates, tend to be teenage boys who travel without the help of a smuggler. “It’s a subculture phenomenon of youth,” says Nestor Rodriguez, who codirects the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston. “You migrate if you are unattached.”

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Many kids do head straight to the US border on their own, but many others have ended up in towns like Tapachula. If a child was shepherded by a smuggler who’s been caught by authorities, that child often gets left behind without the street smarts to continue north. Other children who’ve made their way into Mexico stay put for a while because their friends are there.

They often work as “little kangaroos,” dubbed such because of the trays of the gum and candy they wear across their fronts. They also wash car windows in traffic, sell balloons, and do other odd jobs.

‘Love-hate’ relationship with locals

Rodolfo Casillas, an immigration expert at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico City, says residents have a “love-hate” relationship with the migrant children. “The feelings are conflicted about them. On the one hand they  . . . dynamize the economy,” he says. That includes eating at markets and renting rooms that five or 10 might share.

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“But,” adds Mr. Casillas, “they have also taken over the public space. And many feel they contribute to crime.”

Migrants are more accepted now, say locals. But the perception that young migrants are making the region more violent lingers, says Carmen Fernandez, an immigration expert at the College of the Southern Border in Tapachula.

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