AMERICA/MEXICO - The Bishops: "Family Reunification for immigrant children"

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - It is urgent to consider a legal institute that deals with "family reunification" for immigrant children who, from Central and South America, cross the borders of the United States in search of a better life and have parents already residing in the United U.S.: this is what the Bishops of Mexico asked for during the visit of the Governor of California (USA), Edmund G. Brown, for four days in Mexico.
As reported in a note sent to Fides by the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), Governor Brown spent the second day of his visit with the Mexican Bishops and other Bishops from the United States, El Salvador in order to deal with the problem of children stopped at the border. The phenomenon is now considered a humanitarian emergency in the region (see Fides 24/07/2014). "One of the main reasons – and this is the reason why since October more than 57 thousand undocumented Central American children have migrated to the United States – is the false information on an upcoming immigration reform", explains the Bishops' note, stating that this topic is used by human traffickers to bring and abandon hundreds of children at the border. Mexican Bishop Mgr. Guillermo Rodrigo Teodoro Ortiz Mondragón, of the diocese of Cuautitlan and head of the Commission for Human Mobility of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, has provided additional information to Fides Agency: the Governor of California complained about the stalemate in which the U.S. Congress finds itself with regards to the immigration reform, which could pave the way to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants who live, study and work in that country.
The Bishops, along with the governor, have agreed to launch and support information campaigns on the real immigration laws in force in the United States, and at the same time to consider the possibility of legalizing "family reunification" for the children stopped at the border who have parents in the United States.
California shares a border with Mexico of 225 km, which is crossed legally every day by thousands of people and goods, especially from the passage between Tijuana (Mexico) and San Diego (United States). In this same area several underground tunnels have been discovered for the passage of illegal immigrants and drug trafficking. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 31/07/2014)