Guatemalans still risk migration despite child deaths in US
Posted Jun 5, 2019 02:08:22 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CAMOTAN, Guatemala — News of the deaths of five Guatemalan children in U.S. immigration custody in the last half year has reached the remote, sweltering towns and hamlets of eastern Guatemala. But it’s not dissuading people from attempting their own arduous migrations with offspring in tow.
Ericka Gutiérrez in the small rural town of Camotan says the deaths are “terrifying.” But she’s been unable to find work and has no other way to pay the $5,000 debt she took on to pay a smuggler who led her on an initial attempt to migrate. So she plans to go again, taking her 6-year-old son.
The drought-stricken area produces an increasing number of migrants hoping for succor in the United States, despite warnings by President Donald Trump not to come.
The Associated Press
