Human River

Thousands of people like a human river, like a never-ending column of travelers on foot, barefoot, with the soles of their feet split open, cracked, by the thousands of kilometers traveled.

They flee social and domestic violence, the indolence of the state, community and church. They are angels expelled without any justification, with a capacity to endure in the face of asphyxiation, dehydration, injuries, hunger, cold, the daytime heat of the desert and its nighttime cold.

Travelers without a compass, alone, in despair, hopeless, abused and made invisible, they confront many monsters, such as coyotes, human traffickers, sexual exploiters, modern-day enslavers and delinquents without souls.

They pass high walls, electric fences, deserts, frontiers, television cameras and hungry bloodhounds, evil policemen. They travel for days on foot, packed inside freight trains, the backs of vans and pick-up trucks, with plastic bags in small reservoirs, in the crates and baggage of evil merchants.

Without names, without passports, without GPS, without food, without medicine, without clothing, without water, without lanterns, just with an imaginary backpack that carries the dream of finding their mothers and fathers, the hope of having a better life.

They come from northern Central America — Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala — and Mexico, and they go, against one of the world’s most powerful armies, toward a country that possesses security systems and an aggressive immigration policy against brown skin and curly hair.

They are coming to the United States over several years by the thousands, and by the thousands, they are repatriated, without consideration, without rights, in a round-trip where many find death.

There are so many of these people, who are skinny, hungry and half-naked, that the statistical system cannot reflect with precision how many they are. It is presumed that they are more than the numbers publicized.

“Children,” “babies,” “kids,” “youngsters,” or however else they are popularly referred to in our nations, these are words that denote humanity in their meaning. They are, nevertheless, treated as “undocumented,” “illegal,” and “carriers of diseases.” These expressions are degrading because they suggest that we do not see them as persons, as female and male citizens of the world.

These boys and girls, when they cross the line of the absolute power, are “arrested,” “detained,” “moved” and “admitted” into shelters where they cannot count on conditions that allow them to enjoy the right to water, food, health, protection, dignity, honor, education, to live as a family, among other rights.

These little girls and boys who face enormous aggressions walk a cycle of violence — from their country of origin, and later in the countries they pass through, and then in their destination country. When they are repatriated, they return to suffer violence.

In the face of this massive violation of human rights, it is necessary:

– To acknowledge that the declaration of emergency or humanitarian crisis issued by the U.S. president is not sufficient in attending to the multitude of problems that immigrant girls and boys live through, problems that adult society generates.

– To promote profound immigration reform in the United States, a reform not to deport the girls and boys, but to procure respect for all their human rights, their development, and family re-unification.

– To develop structural, economic, political and social transformations through regional public policies and transnational actions of the governments, agencies for international development, the Central American Integration System, churches, the press, social movements and organizations; these policies should be focused on the rights of the immigrant children, their families and communities.

– To promote the coordination of better agreements between the governments of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States, and that these agreements be implemented in the superior interest of the children and the restitution of their rights, established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.