American Children, Now Struggling to Adjust to Life in Mexico
By Damien Cave June 18, 2012
"IZÚCAR DE MATAMOROS, Mexico — Jeffrey Isidoro sat near the door of his fifth-grade classroom here in central Mexico, staring outside through designer glasses that, like his Nike sneakers and Nike backpack, signaled a life lived almost entirely in the United States. His parents are at home in Mexico. Jeffrey is lost.
When his teacher asked in Spanish how dolphins communicate, a boy next to him reached over to underline the right answer. When it was Jeffrey’s turn to read, his classmates laughed and shouted “en inglés, en inglés” — causing Jeffrey to blush. “Houston is home,” Jeffrey said during recess, in English. “The houses and stuff here, it’s all a little strange. I feel, like, uncomfortable.” Never before has Mexico seen so many American Jeffreys, Jennifers and Aidens in its classrooms. The wave of deportations in the past few years, along with tougher state laws and persistent unemployment, have all created a mass exodus of Mexican parents who are leaving with their American sons and daughters. In all, 1.4 million Mexicans — including about 300,000 children born in the United States — moved to Mexico between 2005 and 2010, according to Mexican census figures. That is roughly double the rate of southbound migration from 1995 to 2000, and new government data published this month suggest that the flow is not diminishing. The result is an entire generation of children who blur the line between Mexican and American. |
Multimedia from the article |
Children at the Border: The Screening, Protection and Repatriation of Unaccompanied Mexican Minors
Introduction
Every year tens of thousands of Mexican minors, many of whom are vulnerable to trafficking or other forms of abuse, make the perilous journey north and attempt to cross the border into the United States. Until 2008, the United States, as a matter of policy and practice, turned around any unaccompanied Mexican children caught at or near the border with little or no evacuation risks they faced upon return to Mexico. In December 2008, Congress changed this "revolving door" policy. The William Wilberforce trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization of 2008 (the TVPRA) mandated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interview every unaccompanied Mexican minor in order to make the determination that the child (i) is not potential victim of trafficking, (ii) has no possible claim to asylum, and (iii) can (and does) voluntarily agree to go back home. Unless all these questions are answered in the affirmative, the child is not immediately returned to Mexico, but rather must remain to be evaluated for a claim of protection in the United States. The TVPRA further provided that the United States ensure safe repatriation of all minors, including unaccompanied Mexican minors, primarily through repatriation programs and bilateral agreements to be negotiated by the Department of State (DOS). The TVPRA also set standards for the care and custody of unaccompanied minors in the United States, required that federal agencies create programs to prevent the exploitation of unaccompanied minors, and provided more child friendly- procedures for child asylum claims. |
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