Could kids fleeing Central America be sent back to face more gang violence?
Could kids fleeing Central America be sent back to face more gang violence?
- July 25, 2014
- Al Valdez, social sciences lecturer, is quoted in The Washington Post July 25, 2014
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From The Washington Post:
“Our deportations at the time did not cause the gang problem, but they acted as a
catalyst,” said Alfonso Valdez, a gang expert at the University of California, Irvine
and a former government anti-gang agent. “People were poor, and the social conditions
were ripe. It was like putting a virus in a culture dish.” … Valdez noted that the
largest number of unaccompanied minors reaching the U.S. border come from the area
of San Pedro Sula, a city on the northern coast of Honduras that is one of the most
gang-infested cities in the Americas. “It makes no sense for us to send back kids
to the most violent city in the hemisphere,” Valdez said.
For the full story, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gang-member-deportations-in-90s-fact....
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