Honduran girl’s solo journey to U.S. illustrates risks parents take
MISSION, Texas — The Honduran girl, 7 years old and surrounded by strangers in the predawn darkness, was determined to keep pace with the other migrants headed for the U.S. border.
Her father, she told an Associated Press journalist, had traveled with her by bus for 22 days across Mexico. Then, he went back to their homeland —but not before he placed her in the hands of a young man who was to help her cross the river into Texas.
“He just said to go on my own and take care of myself,” the 7-year-old said.
What happened to the man whowas to be her guide is unclear, but the pony-tailed girl met up with a group and pressed on, vigorously swinging her arms to keep up as they trekked north through the Rio Grande Valley last Sunday under a half-moon. Temperatures had dipped into the mid-50s; the girl wore a yellow jacket decorated with cartoonish drawings of trains and a black mask.
(The AP is not using the girl’s name. It does not normally name children without permission from their parents, and the identity of her father could not be obtained.)
But her journey illustrates the extraordinary risks taken by migrant parents to get their children across the border, even if it means abandoning them for the most perilous part of the trip.
These desperate decisions represent a dilemma for the fledgling administration of President Joe Biden as it attempts to restore an orderly asylum system: In trying to adopt a more humane approach to protect minors traveling alone, more children may be put at risk.
Nearly 9,500 migrant children arrived at the border in February, up 60% from a month earlier. The governmentis rushing to set up more facilities to house them and
speeding up the process to place them with relatives in the U.S. San Diego said Monday that its convention center would host migrant children foran average of 30 to 35 days.
Single adults are almost always expelled, while families are sometimes expelled and sometimes allowed to remain inthe U.S. to pursue asylum.
The girl did reach the U.S. A fellow Honduran migrant, Fernanda Solis, 25, said she found her crying alone on a dirt path north of the Rio Grande after midnight, as a helicopter hovered above and border agents addressed migrants-through a loudspeaker.
Ms. Solis tried to comfort the girl, who was cold, hungry and thirsty. She told her they could walk together to turn themselves over to Border Patrol agents and seek asylum.
The girl gained confidence as she walked a route commonly used by migrants. She answered questions unhesitatingly: She turns 8 next month. She should be going into third grade, though she did not complete second because of the pandemic.
She pressed ahead to a country where she knows no one but a lone family
member in South Carolina.
“That’s how she acts. She is brave,” Ms. Solis said.
The girl said her father had no more money to cross the border with her. “He lost his job,” she said simply.
Ms. Solis said she was able to gather that the girl’s father had recently tried to cross with her, but they were both quickly expelled back to Reynosa, Mexico, under pandemic-related powers the Trump administration invoked. Biden has kept the powers — known as Title 42 for the section of an obscure publichealth law — in place.
“The girl told me they had tried to cross together, but they were returned. This time, he just sent the girl,” Ms. Solis said.
The girl turned herself over to Customs and Border Protection, which did not respond to a request for information about her whereabouts.
Her story is being repeated again and again on the border.
“The parents are saying, ‘We are not going to make it. ... But if I send my child up to the bridge, and they cross alone, they’ll have to take them in,’ ” said Jennifer Harbury, a Texas-based human rights advocate.