AMERICA/UNITED STATES - Children and young immigrants in the U.S.A: "They are not seeking adventure, they are fleeing from a war"

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

El Paso (Agenzia Fides) - On behalf of the United States Bishops' Conference, the Bishop of El Paso (Texas), His Exc. Mgr. Mark Joseph Seitz, will bring the testimony of the Catholic Church regarding children and young unaccompanied immigrants to the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives in Washington. Mgr. Seitz has announced that tomorrow, Wednesday, June 25, he will show images and videos to illustrate the odyssey experienced by these children who are fleeing violence in their countries of origin.
According to the note sent to Fides Agency, the Bishop hopes that parliamentarians "are able to see that we are dealing with human faces, lives, instead of thinking only about how to put a bad light on the opposition party". In November, Mgr. Seitz went to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, he also visited the hostel for migrant children in Tapachula (Chiapas, Mexico) where he spoke with refugees about the situation in their countries of origin.
"In Mexico I spoke with two boys from San Pedro Sula (Honduras) - recalls Mgr. Seitz - who told me that they fled from their homes because they were threatened with death if they had not joined the gang in their neighborhood. These boys, but there are also children of 5 years of age, do not leave their communities for new adventures, but flee wars in their countries. A war that their governments is losing when they fail to protect their people".
The Bishop of El Paso highlighted the situation of hundreds of immigrant children who have crossed the southern border of the United States, and who have now been moved to other places such as his diocese, El Paso, waiting for the immigration authorities to solve their cases. "As a Church, we do not see these children as mere numbers or statistics - concluded Mgr. Seitz -.They are people with a face and a life". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 24/06/2014)


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