Danessa Hernandez

Child Immigration: Do not make it complicated, look at the BIG picture

NOT the politics.
It is times like these I worry about the future for children. A country that has prided itself
on being the land of the free, and the home of the brave, needs to stay true to its foundation.
Many believe America is this wonderful place where every problem solves itself through hard
work. What about those who go through hard work to only live in this land of opportunity?
Millions of immigrants travel in-between the borders of the United States and neighboring
countries. Some with passports, others with work visas, and many with just the clothes on their
backs. As turmoil rises in Central America, families flee to the border of the United States
knowing that as soon as they cross they have a fighting chance at a better life. Mothers come
alone to work so they can send money back to their children or save up so that they could pay a
coyote to bring them across the border. Children, as they always do, grow impatient and seek the
only foundation that they know and standby, love. This is why children leave to find their
families when so much is at stake. The big picture, they just want to be with their family.
Children learn visually, and kinesthetically. Having that human to human contact and
communication is key for their growth. The deprivation of losing a strong leader/model (the
parental figure) is an extreme loss. To fill that void children seek out the first answer that comes
to mind: find their way back to that figure. Therefore, I would like to focus on this aspect of child
immigrants, the psychological and emotional impact of child immigrants in reaching family
members and the importance of immigrant families.
Children are very adept in understanding what it is they want but are not able to
comprehend the hidden psychological view of their decisions. The travel from the Central
American border across Mexico to the U.S. is exhausting and dangerous. They travel thousands
of miles to view the U.S. and find a better life (based on older adolescents) or to reunite with
their family (younger children). Suarez-Orosco, a psychologist states that children who
experience separation from their parents for long periods of time result in a greater risk of
depression and anxiety. Those two together create a combination that is not healthy for any
adolescent. These psychological effects can cause for irrational decision making. Young children
who just want to be with their family see no other option but to travel to the parents. Unknowing
of the dangerous risks that come with that decision. The quickest travel involves using the freight
trains that travel across Mexico. The trains in Mexico are not very stable to be in complete
honesty. They derail easily and are mainly used for cargo transportation rather than personal.
That is where people begin to travel on top of the trains. Dangerous people ride those rails
theres psychos, rapists, gangs, its a dangerous place. (Reyes-Juarez). Knowing that
information what would push these children to still continue on the journey if the danger is so
apparent? Children crave that connection to their parents, the love, comfort, and stability that
come with the idea of being taken care of by parents. Children are at a very critical age in life
where they soak up information like sponges. Watching the traumatic events that happen on the
trains (e.g. gang violence, rape) cause children to experience the psychological effects of
depression and anxiety. Children must constantly be watching to make sure they do not attract
attention in which they could be overtaken by these dangerous individuals/groups. If the

experience happens to them or they see an action like this take place the psychological impact is
so great that the child will in most cases carry that with them into adulthood. How can we stop
this? The answer, we cannot. As long as there is turmoil and inefficient quality of life where
these children live nothing will get better. Parents are leaving their families, kids are leaving their
families because of injustice in their homelands. They believe that the U.S. is the land where
everything is free and living life happily and to the fullest is the reward for every life lived there.
That is not true. Many children are captured at the border and put in detention centers. Children
are then automatically categorized as the lowest part of society, nobody with no place or no
name, they are aliens. Imagine coming from a place where there was no sense of security and
happiness only to be told they do not belong in a land that they had so much expectation and
hope for. How devastating for child to lose its happiness and hope all because of the way a
society is made to think. Furthering that the psychological aspect of child immigrants not only
relates to their travels but to their homes and destinations. Especially when they reach their
destination and find it a cruel place in which they are deemed as nothing more than an extra body
that travels only to take our jobs away. Children do not seek employment when traveling, they
seek comfort. Who are we as a society as a people of a great, nation to say that child is not
worth the time and efforts we give currently.
Add the psychology to the emotional impact that children face. What a mix. After going
through this taxing journey and realizing that their expectations of a good place to be are not met
and they fall into depression, the childrens demeanor diminishes. If you search the internet
pictures of children what do you find first? Smiling, happy children who are perceived as
carefree. When in reality almost half the worlds population of children live in poverty. How is it
that the internet perceives children to be in a particular way? This is due to the fact that people
are ignorant towards what reality is for children around the world. Yes there are the commercials
of children in Africa who are starving, what about all the other children in the world? In the
documentary Which Way Home, we see the testimonies of children from all ages traveling on the
freight trains in Mexico to reach the United States. The film follows one specific Honduran boy,
Carlos, who is fourteen years old. However they broaden the horizon by looking into children
who are still in primary school (or would be still in primary school). These younger children are
alone or are being escorted by a coyote. A coyote, is the term used to identify smugglers.
Parents leave the younger children in the hands of smugglers in hopes that they will bring them
across the border safely. However, these smugglers take drugs, and firearms across the border.
Parents are putting their money and trust in these people in order to see their children again. The
emotional connection between a child and parent is indescribable. Literally, parents and children
alike will do anything to see their loved ones. Even putting their own lives at risk to just be with
them again and work for a better life together. In the first part of the film Carlos expresses that as
soon as he reaches the United States he wants to stay there forever. The connection he has in
affiliation to Untied States stems from movies and T.V. shows that create the U.S. as the land of
opportunity. Carlos was able to connect to this idea of America so strongly that he pursued the
thought of attaining the American dream. However, at the end of the documentary Carlos
describes his feelings of being in the U.S. as sad and it was not what he thought it was going to
be like. Crushing the emotional impact of Carlos idea of America. What many people found
troubling in the documentary on the notion of a childs emotional attachment in relation to a
young boy and young girl around the age of 8 and 9? These two know exactly why they are
moving forward to America no matter what. To find their family.

Family is more than just a group of people, family is a bond that cannot be broken
between people you love. A personal testimony of travel comes from an interview between my
grandmother and her experiences (with also a few comments from the rest of the family, as we
all push ourselves into telling our stories and experiences). My grandmother, Lourdes, traveled
across the U.S. and Mexico border in June of 1980. Her husband had crossed over a few months
previously and found work. Once he obtained a stable income he told his wife that he wants her
to bring the family across. Traditionally in Mexican culture the wife follows the husband in his
travels for work if he has to leave a certain city indefinitely. The whole family packs up their
belongings and follows. That happened previously with her father and mother. The children may
not have not wanted to travel north but, as a family they stay together. In hearing this testimony it
furthered my idea of how strong a family connection is. The children put all their trust in their
parents for making this decision and following without question. When her husband wanted the
children and herself to travel she said pues bien, (well ok). She had no doubt in his capabilities
packed her two children. Left her home in Mexico with a bag of clothes and water to cross across
the border. In the documentary the children begged for food along the way and had only the
clothes on their backs when traveling to find their families in the United States. When families
are captured at the border they are immediately separated for questioning and some are deported
before others. Separating immigrant families has long been a difficult controversy. Families who
lose their main support for income due to deportation struggle immensely and cannot do
anything about it (not even speak out) because of the fear of deportation and separating their
families even more. Presidents have been trying to make the transition smooth for immigrant
families. Reagan proposed an act that allowed illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. That
allowed millions to bring their families from the dark and make it possible to gain the freedoms
that natural citizen automatically receives. Obama created the Dream Act, which allows children
of illegal immigrants who were not born in the U.S. at certain ages to apply for citizenship. Over
four million came forward to claim the process for citizenship and not have to hide from
authorities. With these acts the Presidents allowed for families to come together and not live in
fear of being separated. Causing families to rejoice and live together peacefully just as any other
family would if they had been born in the United States. Children then may live in a place that
provides them with a sense of relief, happiness, and the purpose that they have so many more
possibilities to grow into a the life of comfort they so wanted with their family.
The emotional and psychological impact of children traveling to be with their families is
no longer to be overlooked. There needs to be a transition from focusing on immigration policies
and reforms to the real reason why immigration is an issue. Children just want to be with their
families. That is the big picture, the simple answer, the true reason why children want to travel to
America. The issue is society is drawing the public to view child immigrants as growing up to be
affiliated with gangs, and drugs. Immigrant children are looking for their families not the leaders
of a gang. However, if society continues to put this idea that child immigrants are so low they are
to result to gangs and violence then, that is what will happen. It begins with providing the real
facts the true information of the children rather than the generalization that society puts them in.
The call to action is this: nothing will begin to change unless you begin to share the truth no
matter the heartbreak or consequence.