Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 30 deceMber 2019

Denied asylum, migrants return to place they fear most: home

By TIM SULLIVAN boy to the U.S., where they
Associated Press applied for — and were
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras refused — asylum. The
(AP) — It had been nearly mother took their teenage
a year since the soft-spo- daughter into hiding in the
ken factory worker applied mountains.
for U.S. asylum, saying he After the father and son
feared being killed. It had were deported back home
been four months since in late November, and a
he'd been deported and brief, tearful reunion, the
flown home to Honduras. family again split up so
And now, sitting at a TGI they'd be harder to track.
Fridays in San Pedro Sula "No one knows where we
one day in late November, are," the mother said in a
he tells the story of how he telephone interview a few
had escaped death just days after her husband
three days before. and son returned. "No one."
He was walking on a ___
crowded downtown street The Trump Administration
two blocks from San Pedro has long insisted that Cen-
Sula's city hall, where the tral Americans in danger
policemen outside carry Neighbors watch as police and forensic workers inspect a body at a crime scene in the Rivera already have safe havens.
assault rifles and wear body Hernandez neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Nov. 30, 2019. "For those of you who have
armor. Associated Press legitimate asylum claims,
Suddenly, a man stepped we encourage them to go
toward him. He fired one get. for more than 20 years by There are police stations in and seek assistance from
shot from a pistol, and fled. U.S. pressure on Mexico has a powerful criminal family these neighborhoods, but the first neighboring coun-
The worker slumped forced tens of thousands of from his small hometown, everyone knows who is in try," Acting Customs and
against a wall, disoriented, asylum-seekers to survive ever since an attack left his charge. The gangs moni- Border Protection Com-
a sensation of warmth rip- an immigration limbo in stepmother and stepbroth- tor the streets, the police missioner Mark Morgan re-
pling through him before shelters and ever-growing er dead. The other family, patrols and rival gangs us- cently told reporters.
the pain hit. But he'd been tent camps in Mexican bor- he said, fears the men of his ing a complex network of But most of those neigh-
lucky. He'd been grazed der cities, waiting for their family will seek revenge. young boys who work in boring countries are also
just below his belt line, leav- cases to wind through U.S. "I've spent my whole life shifts around the clock and deeply dangerous, with
ing a bloody welt about 3 immigration courts. Pres- running," he said in his soft report anything suspicious. powerful gangs of their
inches long. He was dis- sure on Central American mumble, looking down at San Pedro Sula's criminal own, drug cartels, corrupt
charged from the hospi- governments, meanwhile, a half-eaten cheeseburger life is dominated by two officials and police forces
tal after a few hours and has led to bilateral agree- as he talked about life un- street gangs: MS-13 and regularly outgunned by
returned to his tiny rental ments aimed at sending derground. "One day they Mara 18. Very little escapes criminals.
apartment and a life in hid- migrants to Guatemala, El are going to get me." their notice. While immigration advo-
ing. Salvador and Honduras to ___ "They told us they knew cates acknowledge some
While asylum has always seek asylum there. The rules are clear for out- where to find my son," said cases don't meet the legal
been a longshot for mi- Many — like the unfortu- siders who enter the gang- a middle-class San Pedro standard for asylum, they
grants, with most claims de- nate factory worker — controlled neighborhoods Sula mother after she and believe the real intention
nied, it has become even have been flown directly of San Pedro Sula: Roll your her husband ran out of of the ever-tighter White
harder in the Trump admin- back to the dangerous windows down so the spot- money to pay their "war House policies are to dis-
istration, which has focused places where their journeys ters can see you're not a tax," the extortion pay- courage migrants — even
on making asylum increas- started. threat; drive slowly; stay on ments the gangs demand. those with valid needs for
ingly difficult — some would He says he and his rela- main roads, leave before So the family ran. The fa- asylum — from trying to
say nearly impossible — to tives have been hunted nightfall. ther took the 11-year-old reach the U.S.q