BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 21, 2021– Some weeks ago we reported on a Belizean migrant child who took the perilous journey from Belize to the United States border all alone. Along the way she joined a group of other children, all heading to the US/Mexican border without any parental supervision.
The 12-year-old, Ashley Henriquez, has since been reunited with her father in Dallas, Texas, after spending some weeks in social services.
A photo was posted by her sister on Facebook celebrating her arrival to the US.
But while her story ends with a sigh of relief, many other migrant children, traveling alone from Central American countries, are faced with a more bitter reality.
Almost half of the nearly 300 children from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico who are arriving at the US/Mexican border each day, do not have any parents waiting for them on the other side. These children either wait to cross into the US or are sent back to their respective countries of origin.
Many of the members of these migrant groups are detained by Mexican authorities, who have since clamped down on cross-border migration to the north.
The United States’ Biden administration announced at the start of Biden’s presidency that their approach to the migration issue would be different from the one taken by former US president Donald Trump. However, President Biden has recently signed an order to keep the number of refugees admitted to the US yearly at Trump-era levels.
