Eduardo Saldana
EFE
June 4, 2012
The number of undocumented minors attempting the dangerous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border alone has risen, experts gathered at the University of San Diego’s “Children at the Border” forum said.
The director of USD’s Trans-Border Institute, David Shirk, who organized the forum, told Efe immigration patterns have changed over the past 20 years for reasons such as the expansion of the metal wall on a portion of the frontier in 1994 and tighter border protection following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Due to the difficulty in crossing the border, parents typically make the trek first and then urge their children to make the attempt later, usually alone, he said, adding that procedures for protecting minors’ interests and rights must be improved.
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