Via AP:
On the last day of school Gladys Chinoy memorized her mother’s phone number in New York City and boarded a bus to Guatemala’s northern border.
With nothing but the clothes on her back, the 14-year-old took a truck-tire raft across the Naranjo River into Mexico and joined a group of five women and a dozen children waiting with one of the smugglers who are paid $6,000 to $7,000 for each migrant they take to the U.S.
The women and children waited by the train tracks in this small town in the southern state of Chiapas until the shriek of a train whistle and the glare of headlights pierced the night. Suddenly, dozens of teens and mothers with young children flooded out of darkened homes and budget hotels, rushing to grab the safest places on the roof of the northbound freight train and join a deluge of children and mothers that is overwhelming the U.S. immigration system. […]
The belief that women and children can safely surrender to authorities the moment they set foot in the U.S. has changed the calculus of tens of thousands of parents who no longer worry about their children finishing the dangerous trip north through Mexico with a potentially deadly multiday hike through the desert Southwest.
“The United States is giving us a great opportunity because now, with this new law, we don’t have to try to cross the desert where so many people die. We can hand ourselves over directly to the authorities,” Gladys said, adding that she hopes to become a doctor.
The smiling teenager with long black hair said she was more excited about seeing her mother again than she was scared about the trip. Her mother said she was aware of the dangers but finally decided the risk was worth it after five years apart.
Reached by phone at home, the mother said she decided to send for her daughter because “if she gets across she can stay here, that’s what you hear.”
“Now they say that all children need to do is hand themselves over to the Border Patrol,” said the mother, who declined to provide her name because she is in the U.S. illegally.
HT: FRA