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My Immigrant Students’ Carved-Up Bodies Confirm the Need for Asylum.
Their scars have roots in U.S. soil.
A Facebook friend wanted facts to understand how immigrants are “seeking asylum.” He believed they were just coming to the U.S. for better opportunities. As a teacher of immigrant teens, I have facts to share.
My kids who have made it across the Mexican border are carved up. Chunks of their bodies are gone, knifed out of their flesh, for refusing to join the drug cartels.
Here’s how it works: the cartels kill their siblings, making it clear they’ll do what they say, then try to force a gun into a kid’s hand: “You kill this person, or we kill you.”
Kid says no. Kid gets hacked up. Kid gets told, “We’ll be back to give you another chance to use this gun. Think hard.”
Kid doesn’t want to kill. Kid doesn’t want to be killed. So kid finds a way to get across the border and seek asylum.
I can hear the cacophony brewing: “See? Hispanics are gangsters and murderers!” Before you speak, understand these facts about both the cartels and the United States’ role in creating the dynamics Mexicans and Central Americans are desperate to escape.
• In these places, there are precious few jobs that pay anything resembling a living wage. In Guatemala, for example, the average daily pay is less than $4.00 a day for work in…
