 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | December 2007 
More Central American Women Immigrating to US
 Martin Barillas - Spero News
go to original
In order to improve their living conditions, more and more women are leaving their native Guatemala to cross through Mexico and go on to the United States as illegal workers. While there are no exact figures for the number of women going north from the Central American republic, the independent Center for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH) has undertaken a study in 78 localities that appears to confirm the phenomenon.
According to CALDH, dozens of women are traveling illegally to the United States without regard to risks such as rape and murder. These female immigrants face rape and assaults by police authorities and criminal gangs along the way north, as well as the vagaries of terrain and weather in the US/Mexico border region. Scores have died in the last decade while crossing the deserts along the Tortilla Curtain between the US and Mexico.
The CALDH study shows that the majority of Guatemalan women running the gauntlet to the north come from rural areas who are risking all to aid their children and to be reunited with husbands and partners working in the US, said Paredes. The coyotes or traffickers who bring immigrants over the border charge betwen 15,000 to 25,000 Quetzales ($2,000 to $3,500). The legal minimum daily wage in Guatemala is approximately $7, even while many people (if they can find work) earn less.
If travelling by air directly to airports in the US, immigrants are charged between $5,500 to $7,500 to reach Los Angeles, California. For most of these women, the amounts charged by coyotes are insuperable and so they hope for rides offered by truckdrivers travelling to Mexico from Guatemala, or hope on railway cars. It is in places like Tapachula, in Mexico's southern-most state, where they work (often forced into prostitution) to earn enough money to reach "El Norte".
According to an official with the SOS aid agency, it is the poverty suffered by the majority of Guatemalans that induces them to go north. The number of women risking their lives to enter the US has increased in 2007. According to the CALDH study, over 50 percent of the men and women leaving Guatemala manage to enter the US despite the dangers they face. Among them are university graduates, too. Those who do not make it to the US die along the way or are stopped by Mexican and US immigration officials.
For example, there have been numerous reports in US and other media citing Mexican authorities with summary executions of Central American immigrants crossing through Mexico, along with other human rights violations such as rape. SOS called for the Guatemalan government to initiate programs to inform women of the dangers they face in crossing illegally into the US. The CALDH will be released officially in January 2008. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us