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By Ivonne Sánchez
On February 7, 2015, Brayan Fernando, 16, left his home in Honduras. The daily violence and threats from gangs forced him to leave his country. This was the fourth time he would try to reach the United States.
About 3:00 a.m. he joined a cousin and another friend. They took a bus that took them to Guatemala and then a boat to cross the Suchiate River, on the border with Mexico. Each paid 15 quetzales (36 Mexican pesos) for transportation; 24 hours later they were in Mexico.
"I've never been able to reach the United States, I have always been deported," says Brayan at Casa Tochan, a shelter for migrants in Mexico City. The first time he tried he was 12, but he was detained by immigration authorities in Chiapas and sent back to this country along with other children and families.
From 2013 to 2015 Mexican immigration authorities repatriated 54,029 minors (aged 0 to 17) from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to the National Migration Institute (INM).
Three years ago 8,401 children were returned to their countries of origin, four out of 10 (i.e. 3,686) were Hondurans, compared to 17,921 in 2014 and 27,707 in 2015, more than half of them (14,253) from Guatemala, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of Mexico's Ministry of Interior.
Three months after Brayan was deported for the first time, he headed back to the northern border. This time he managed to ride La Bestia, the train that migrants use to cross Mexico, but he was detained and sent back to Honduras.
Juan Martín Pérez García, director of the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (Redim) says that Mexico gives priority to political and economic agreements with the United States and ignores Article 4 of the Constitution, that states that children must be a priority in all the actions undertaken by the State.
"With the Southern Border Program deportation has increased: 86% of the children who are detained are deported, which constitutes a serious human rights violation. It is obvious that if children are fleeing violence in their country, repatriating them often means death," Pérez García said.
When Brayan was 14 he left Honduras for the third time, a country in which 16 murders are registered every day, according to data from the Security Ministry.
After two months of riding a train and walking, Brayan finally got close to the U.S. border. It took him 60 days to reach Piedras Negras, Coahuila.
"The Beta group caught us. They treat you like a dog. They grab you by the neck or pants and they hit you. Sometimes they even rob you," said Brayan, who was repatriated for the third time.
Eight out of every 10 children that are detained are returned to their country, Pérez said. He explained that children aged 12 or less are sent to a shelter, and the rest are kept at immigration houses with adults.
Ardelio Vargas Fosado, commissioner of the National Immigration Institute (INM) says that Mexico and the neighboring countries of the southern border face a permanent humanitarian crisis, due to Central American migration flows, and that children as young as five have been found traveling alone or accompanied by other migrants that are not their relatives.
Three failed attempts were not enough for Brayan to give up. In February 2015 he returned to Mexico. His cousin was arrested near the southern border, but he was set free because he did not provide any information about his family.
Now he is staying at Casa Tochan. He has been in Mexico for one year and three months. He works in the construction industry and makes 1,000 pesos (US$54) a week. He is saving because he wants to go to Memphis, Tennessee, where his cousins and uncles are waiting for him.
