A Country of Triple Standards and Migrant Children

We are a society of triple standards that expels its boys and girls toward the “American dream;” we tear off our clothes asking for whatever type of help or preference for our little immigrants, but we do nothing to prevent the fact that each time there is more of a necessity for these boys and girls to immigrate.

We are of triple standards for three simple reasons: 1) To the Salvadorans, it is convenient for us that one-third of our compatriots live in the U.S. because their remittances keep our impoverished and dependent economy of consumption afloat; 2) if those more than 3 million Salvadorans lived in our territory the levels of unemployment, poverty and delinquency would surely increase to exponential levels, since in our country, opportunities are scarce for each and every person; and 3) those on the other side who did not drink even one Coca-Cola because it was manufactured by transnational “imperialism”; today they point their ideals toward the “empire” to live in a nation of opportunities and democracy.

Salvadorans, independent of our ideological creed, should work together to generate living conditions in our territory, because every time there is less necessity to expel our compatriots, like life jackets, pointed toward the north, still knowing that to travel illegally is to expose yourself to death, a cold the penetrates your bones (or the heat that burns your skin), to the deserts. There are thousands of ways to die in the attempt to arrive to the land of the “American dream,” and daily there are hundreds of Salvadorans who attempt it.

What motivates Salvadorans to abandon these 20,000-and-something square kilometers? Well, the lack of opportunities, insecurity and obviously the necessity of family reunification. Immigration only encourages the rupture of the family, and that in turn is the origin of many evils. Family disintegration is a cancer that forms the metastasis of other evils, some with grave and immediate consequences.

So, if we know some of the reasons that motivate the immigration of our compatriots of all ages, we must grab the bull by the horns and try to generate better conditions of coexistence: The security and creation of opportunities with conditions that they cannot wait for — that is, if we should wish to prevent the immigration of our adults and children. Just recently it was found that 14,591 unaccompanied Salvadoran minors were detained between October 2013 and July 2014, all deported or in the process of deportation. To that we add that in the same period, U.S. immigration authorities tracked down 10,417 family units, that is to say, mothers and children together.

The amount of migrant children is alarming. It is frightening because it is known that in their journey they are exposed to being sexually abused, kidnapped, and even murdered. Some have had to stay wandering halfway there. Some years ago I wrote the story of Yubini, a native boy of Zacatecoluca, who was barely 11 years old; after being abandoned by the “coyote” he had to pass months making do with sleeping in doorways, enduring cold and hunger, until he had the fortune of encountering a family who returned him to his country.

There are thousands of stories like Yubini’s. As long as we do not create conditions for living in this country, there will be many more, because the country will continue expelling its adults, its young men, and its boys and girls.

It was said already by Alan Bersin, assistant secretary for international affairs for the Department of Homeland Security: “There is no permission, nor are the borders open for adults or children who cross the border between Mexico and the U.S. illegally.”* Those who are detained invariably will be deported. Wrong or not, the U.S. has that right.

To the Salvadorans, there is nothing left for us but to stop being a society of triple standards on the issue of immigration, not limit ourselves to vain advertising campaigns, put ourselves to work without seeing the political criteria, and create conditions so that our boys and girls do not leave. For them we should create a country of opportunity, safe and above all a great country that guarantees a good horizon for every Salvadoran … especially for our children.

*Editor’s Note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.