Many caravan members say they cannot make ends meet in their home countries due to low wages, extortion or unemployment, says Nathanael Bacon, a Catholic deacon who lives in Guatemala.

The faith leaders are calling on US President Donald Trump and other US officials to stop using the caravan as a political pawn.

They want to ensure due process for asylum seekers and treat all migrants with respect.

They also say the current US trade policy, land reform and non-military aid solutions need examination.

"Nobody wants to leave their homeland. Nobody wants to leave their culture. Nobody wants to leave their family. It's something they're forced to do," says Daniel St. Laurent who serves the chaplain at the Juticalpa Campus of the Catholic University of Honduras.

If Central Americans are to be able to remain in their home country, faith leaders say the US needs to recognise how it has contributed to instability, violence and poverty in the region and take steps to address those root causes of migration.

"As a country, we should be much more compassionate but also smarter," said Bacon, who works with InnerCHANGE, an ecumenical Christian order that cares for the poor.

"We're so uncreative, building up systems that only benefit security firms, the apparatus in the detention centres. If we could reinvest that in a way that's creative and compassionate, we might be able to reduce the number of folks that are forced to migrate."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Catholic Spirit
• Image: Insider

He walked toward his apartment, past laundromats fortified with iron bars and scrawled with graffiti, shuttered stores that sold knockoffs and a cook staffing a taco cart in eerie desolation. Around 3 a.m., he collapsed into a twin bed in a room he rents from a family.

Five hours later, he slid into his desk at Belmont High School, just before the bell rang. The 18-year-old sophomore rubbed his eyes and fixed his gaze on an algebra equation.

Minutes ticked by, and others straggled into the class, nine in all. Like Marcos, most had worked a full shift the night before — sewing clothes, cooking in restaurants, painting homes.

Most were immigrants from Central America, part of several waves of more than 100,000 who arrived as children in the U.S. in the past five years without parents, often after perilous journeys.

Many ended up in classrooms throughout the country. In Los Angeles' Belmont High, nearly 1 in 4 of the school's estimated 1,000 students came from Central America — many of them as unaccompanied minors.

They crossed the border to reunite with mothers and fathers or to find refuge from unprecedented gang violence at home. Some dare to dream they will find success in America, not just the means to survive.

Belmont Principal Kristen McGregor said it has forced the school to reimagine its role in its students' lives.

"Our students, a lot of them have to work. A lot of them have to send money home or pay for rent," she said. "This is going to take a rethinking of education in general. Sure, they get into school, but what's next? How do we support them?" Continue reading

Sources

• Article by Cindy Carcamo, who covers immigration issues for the Los Angeles Times
• Image: Los Angeles Times