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4400 South Expressway 281, Edinburg, TX 78542, USA

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4400 South Expressway 281, Edinburg, TX 78542, USA

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4400 South Expressway 281, Edinburg, TX 78542, USA

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This geographic point represents the location of the United States Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector Headquarters.

The United States’ southern border is divided into several sectors. The Rio Grande Valley sector, encompassing the easternmost part of Texas’ border with Mexico, was the most popular location for illegal entry in 2021, with over 500,000 migrant encounters. Many of these migrant encounters are with Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs), which are defined as children who arrive at the border without a parent, even if a grandparents or other relatives are present. Many families send their young children alone to cross the border alone because they realize that the United States government tends to return families but not lone children.

Migrants often pay smugglers, sometimes called “coyotes'' to get them across the border. As of 2014, an estimated 75%-80% of UACs at the border have been assisted by smugglers. Doing so can often be dangerous, as the smugglers are often unreliable and can be violent or affiliated with human or sex trafficing groups. Migrants are often aware of these dangers, and they see them as worth the risk if it means a chance at life in the United States.

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200 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20201, USA

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200 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20201, USA

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200 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20201, USA

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This point represents the headquarters of HHS (Health and Human Services).

Unaccompanied children at Border processing facilities are by law supposed to be transferred to HHS (Health and Human Services) within 72 hours of first being detained. The job of HHS is to transition these migrants from federal custody into long term care facilities, such as independent shelters, group homes, foster care centers, or a sponsor, such as a parent or guardian. These long term care facilities are meant to be as “least restrictive” as possible, and the conditions at these facilities, while varied, are usually quite humane and much better than the ones at the border facilities. These long term care facilities are meant to be as “least restrictive” as possible, and the conditions at these facilities, while varied, are usually quite humane and much better than the ones at the border facilities.

The ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement), a department of HHS, prefers to release children to sponsors or parents who the agency carefully determines to be suitable to provide care. While the UACs are in the care of these facilities, their cases are being heard: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services rules on asylum cases and the Justice Department rules on all other migration-related cases. Children who win asylum or immigration relief can legally stay in the United States and enjoy all the freedoms afforded by the United States government, and children who lose their case are deported by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to their country of origin. Of the 290,000 UACs who crossed the border since 2014, 4.3% were returned to their home countries, 28% were granted protection, and the remaining 68% of cases remain unresolved. These numbers indicate that UACs tend to be offered protections more than other types of migrants, even though a majority of the cases remain unresolved.

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Tapachula Centro, Tapachula, Chis., Mexico

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Tapachula Centro, Tapachula, Chis., Mexico

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Tapachula Centro, Tapachula, Chis., Mexico

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This point represents the start of the path of the freight train that carries migrants through Mexico.

For migrants who wish to enter the United States illegally from the northern triangle, crossing the porous border into Mexico is the first step. Then, they must choose a way to get to the United States. One way is to hitch a ride on a freight train that begins its journey in the border town of Tapachula, the most popular entry point for migrants. This freight train, known as “La bestia” (the beast) is notorious for the dangers it poses to migrants. Many riders have died from falling off the train while in motion or getting sucked into its moving wheels. Water and food are scarce, and rape, violence and theft on the train are not uncommon. Despite all the dangers that the train poses to migrants, it still remains a popular way to travel through Mexico, showing how desperate migrants are when it comes to escaping their home countries and migrating to the United States.

In recent years, the Mexican government has been under increased pressure to curb the mass influx of migrants that cross through Mexico into the United States. The Mexican government has done this by increasing security at migration checkpoints all across the country and by beginning attempts to keep migrants off the train. This has led to unpredictable stops along the train's path where migrants were forced to find support and resources from local groups while the train was stopped.

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National Palace of Culture, 6A Calle, Guatemala City, Guatemala

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National Palace of Culture, 6A Calle, Guatemala City, Guatemala

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National Palace of Culture, 6A Calle, Guatemala City, Guatemala

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This point represents the location of the 1954 Guatemalan coup, which served as a start to conflict that escalated to civil war.

One of the leading factors that acted as a catalyst for mass migration from Guatemala was the Guatemalan civil war. When the United States was fully involved in a cold war with the USSR, it used its influence and resources to influence governments all around the world, particularly 3rd world countries. The United States was trying to stop the spread of communism around the world, however its intervention sometimes destabilized and hurt countries more than it helped them. In Guatemala, United States foreign policy contributed to Central America’s most deadly war.

In 1954, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) acted to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz, Guatemala’s second democratically-elected president. This was done because Árbenz, with his policies of expropriation, wanted to take some of the private land of the American-owned United Fruit Company. The US state department and United Fruit demanded $16 million in compensation: a demand much higher than the $1.2 million offered by Árbenz. When Árbenz refused, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA director Allen Dulles, who are both former partners of United fruit’s main law firm, convinced then president Eisenhower that Árbenz needed to be taken out of power.

The will from the United States government to depose Árbenz culminated in the United States deposing Árbenz and replacing him with Carlos Castillo Armas, a military officer who led a brutal dictatorship. This US-backed coup d’état paved the way for over 40 years of brutal dictatorships and near-constant war between the government and various militia groups, which ended with peace accords in 1996. The end of the war failed to greatly improve the terrible conditions of the country. Socio-economic issues were not given the attention they deserved, and inequality in Guatemalan society vastly increased. The Guatemalan civil war, as well as the Salvadoran civil war, were some of the fist major catalysts for mass migration from this region.

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This point represents the United States Border Patrol Facility in Donna, Texas.

Once migrants who cross the border turn themselves in to Customs and Border Protection, they are taken to a processing facility, such as the one in Donna, Texas. Conditions in these processing facilities vary widely. For example, on April 2, 2021, the facility in Donna was holding 4300 migrants, with 3,700 of those being children. This amount was over 1600% of the pre-pandemic designated capacity. The overcrowding that took place worsened the conditions for all the migrants held inside. Many human and immigrant rights groups have pointed out the inhumane, cramped conditions that migrants had to endure in the heart of the migrant surge of 2020.

Many migrant children have family members in the United States, and they cross the border (or are compelled to do so) in part to reunite with family members.

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This point represents Los Angeles, where many gang members were located before being deported to other countries.

The devastating nature of both the Salvadoran and Guatemalan civil wars led to terrible conditions for their respective populations. As a result, many youths turned to using violence as a way to take advantage of the societal conditions they were stuck in. This issue was exacerbated by a change in United States migration policy in the 1980s, which led to the deportation of many Central American migrants who had formed gangs in Los Angeles. These gang members, who often found it hard to adjust to the differing conditions of northern triangle countries (the northern triangle consists of the countries El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala), further exacerbated the social issues and worsened living conditions. A lack of investment and poor conditions made it easy for youths to turn to violence and join gangs.

In addition to having some of the highest poverty rates in Central America, the northern triangle countries also have rampant gang activity and violence. Gangs operate with relative impunity, and their actions are a large cause of migration. Gangs forcibly recruit boys sometimes as young as 12 years old, and can kill, rape, or forcibly extort locals. Many migrants flee the northern triangle because of the high levels of gang activity and violence, not to mention the negative impact caused by the past civil wars. These migrants, who want to live lives free of the near constant violence and struggle to survive, are often disproportionately affected by the poor conditions of their countries. Parents migrate to give themselves and their children a better life, and children sometimes journey north all alone to escape their circumstances.  A majority of northern triangle migrants have not completed high school, a very large majority are Catholic or Protestant, and most are indigenous to their home countries. These people see the United States as the best place they can go to, and seek to increase the wellbeing of their life by risking the dangerous journey north.