Sad story. Very poor people come to the US to make money for their families and hopefully get the rest of their family into America. As we read in a report from the Independent:
Ruth Gomez had been calling home to her mother in Honduras every evening, but it was a bittersweet experience. It was good to let her know she was safe, but it was painful too, to speak to her – and especially to her four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
Earlier this month, Ms Gomez and two of her brothers heard about the migrant caravan on television and decided on the spot to join. Now, they were preparing to spend the night in a small park overlooking the town of Pijijiapan, where they had put a white flag that fluttered in the cooling breeze and was inscribed with the words “May peace and God be with us”.
“There are no opportunities for us in Honduras,” she said, wiping away tears as she talked of the decision to leave her children and showing a photograph of them. “I do not think it will be easy to cross [the US border], but also not impossible.”
The testimony of Ms Gomez, which mirrors that of so many migrants making this journey, stands in contrast to a belief held by some in the US that the 10,000 people who set off from countries such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, had “nothing to lose”. In truth, thousands are leaving behind parents, spouses and children. But they are calculating that the pain and danger is worth the chance of a better life.
All three countries suffer from poverty and devastating violence, much of it connected to gangs and the illicit, deadly trade that feeds the US market for illegal drugs. El Salvador and Honduras frequently top the list of nations outside of a war zone with the highest murder rate per capita.