USA: Dozens of women from Central America remain stranded at Texas bus depot awaiting decision on immigration status

Record ID: 348761

  • Title: USA: Dozens of women from Central America remain stranded at Texas bus depot awaiting decision on immigration status
  • Date: 20th June 2014
  • Summary: LAREDO, TEXAS (JUNE 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF GREYHOUND BUS STATION IN LAREDO, TEXAS VARIOUS OF CENTRAL AMERICAN WOMEN INSIDE BUS STATION HOLDING YOUNG CHILDREN WITH BELONGINGS NEARBY VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS UNLOADING AND SORTING CLOTHING SUPPLIES YOUNG BOY SITTING NEXT TO PILE OF CLOTHES IMMIGRANT FAMILIES SORTING THROUGH CLOTHES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DAN
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVATDHENL6D8IC6Z7DQ9IXKO7Y5
  • Story Text: Dozens of Central American women and their children remain stranded at a Greyhound Bus station in Laredo, Texas on Friday (June 20) after border patrol reportedly failed to find room to accommodate them at local migrant detention centres.
    An enormous influx of undocumented migrants crossing the Mexican border into the United States has become too massive for Laredo facilities to handle. With few options, authorities decided to grant a temporary 30-day permission to the group of migrants to remain in the country, with the requirement they appear before a judge on a determined date to present their case, to see if they will be allowed to remain in the country.
    With no where else to go, the migrants remain at the Greyhound bus station, where they are allowed to contact family in the U.S. to send money for a bus ticket to stay with them. Though some could possibly remain at the bus station for the 30-day period.
    Most of the women are from Honduras, and recalled the hardships they left behind in their home country.

    "I am from Parmas, life there is way too rough. You have to search for any place to live, so to survive we decided to move forward, toward this country," said 20-year-old Dana Rivas.
    Organized crime is rampant in the Central American country, and many migrants must travel through Mexico by overcrowded, dangerous trains where they risk their lives.

    "Where I come from, delinquency is all there is. It is very bad there. In your own country, they take everything from you. We have come here, because even though we have suffered during the journey, thank God we are here," said migrant Ingrid Zulema Quinonez.
    Jobs are limited for many families, and just feeding the family is a daily concern.

    "It is very difficult over there, at least for me who has two kids, the money just isn't enough," said Maria Fuentes, a mother of two.
    At the greyhound station turned shelter, women and children sleep on benches and the floor, although they at least have a roof over their head and air conditioning to shelter from the tough summer weather.
    Some families will have to remain in the bus station for days or possibly longer, with no way to get in touch with family and without any money for food.

    "We have a month. I will go before the court and depending, we'll see what they tell me there," said Ingrid Zulema Quinonez.
    Yet some locals have literally come to the rescue of these stranded migrants, with food, shoes and clothing donations.

    "We have all brought any water, clothes, diapers, really everything is needed," said volunteer Adriana Oliva.
    Although still in a desperate situation, donations at least allow the migrants to change into a clean set of clothes, since when they were picked up by border patrol, many were wearing the same clothes they had originally donned the day they left their homes to make the long journey.
    In an attempt to address the root causes of migration that has led to a surge of migrants, many of them children, into the United States, the White House on Friday (June 20) announced tens of millions of dollars of additional funding for Central American governments.
    The United States said it would launch a $40 million program to improve security in Guatemala to reduce pressures forcing flight to United States and a $25 million program to provide services to youth in El Salvador who are vulnerable to organized crime pressure, the White House said in a statement.
    The administration has stepped up efforts to address a flood of children that are arriving illegally in the United States, a situation President Barack Obama has called an urgent humanitarian crisis.
    It also announced $9.6 million in additional support to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to help them receive and reintegrate people who are sent back.
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