C. America migrants traveling in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

C. America migrants traveling in Mexico

Chris Kraul
Los Angeles Times
May. 8, 2005 12:00 AM

CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico - The flow of Central American immigrants bound for the United States has surged 25 percent or more this year, say government and aid agency officials, who point to the sharp climb in deportations, injury reports and assistance needs as the basis for their estimates.

Confronted with increasingly bleak economies in their home countries and rising gang violence, the immigrants, many of them young, are heading north through Mexico at a rate that Mexican and Honduran authorities agree has gone through the roof.

Alex Pacheco, the Honduran consul in the Mexican border city of Tapachula, about 20 miles north of here, says the number of stranded, broke and injured Hondurans he has helped is up 30 percent from when he arrived in late 2003. advertisement

"There is no reason to hide it. It's grown at an exaggerated pace," said Pachecho, who thinks the workload and the tales of woe have aged him prematurely. "The reason is simple: The majority of the countries they come from are in big trouble."
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0508immig08.html