Mexico's Failed State: 370 Abandoned Immigrant Children Found in One Week— Dumped By Traffickers Who Promised Passage To America for a Price

Central American migrants in southern Mexico. (Photo by Peter Haden)

By Anahi Rama, Christine Murray, Gunna Dickson
In one week, 370 immigrant children, most of them from Central America, were found abandoned in Mexico, after traffickers promised to take them to the United States but left them to their own devices after being paid thousands of dollars, authorities said.

Almost half of them, 163 children under the age of 18, were found traveling alone, Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement.

Each month, thousands of immigrants, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, attempt to emigrate to the United States, crossing several borders in the process, despite the threat from drug gangs that kidnap, murder and rape women.

The children told federal migration agents that their 'guides' abandoned them after accepting $3,000 to $5,000 in payments, INM said.


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