Home / Dallas News / These migrants teens have advice for Kamala Harris as she visits the Guatemala they fled

These migrants teens have advice for Kamala Harris as she visits the Guatemala they fled

EL PASO — Immigrant rights experts and migrants stuck here on the border have some advice for Kamala Harris as the vice president visits Guatemala and Mexico this week to seek answers to the root causes of migration: don’t overthink it.

“Help us create jobs, stop corruption,” said Ezer, detained by U.S. authorities after crossing the border at age 17. “That’s what I would tell the government because that’s what we all know.”

Ezer is one of four migrant teens recently interviewed by The Dallas Morning News who turned 18 while in custody and ‘aged out’ — all were released on their shared birthday from an emergency shelter for migrant children at Fort Bliss to temporary housing at the Annunciation House nonprofit center.

Manix, another of the teens, said he hopes to work in the United States for three or four years and then return home with enough money to run his own grocery store. “Pressure our authorities to make Guatemala safe,” he urged.

Manix from Guatemala plays a Happy Birthday song for his friends and himself on May 28 in El Paso. They "aged out" of federal immigration custody by turning 18.
Manix from Guatemala plays a Happy Birthday song for his friends and himself on May 28 in El Paso. They “aged out” of federal immigration custody by turning 18.(Alfredo Corchado / The Dallas Morning News)

The four teenagers shared their stories and offered advice for Harris on the condition that their full names not be published, citing security concerns for their families back in Guatemala. The young men represent the very people who the Biden administration is trying to keep from leaving Guatemala by offering them a glimmer of hope in their native land.

Harris arrived Sunday evening in Guatemala on her first trip abroad as vice president to highlight the Biden administration’s efforts to find solutions to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that’s bedeviled the last three U.S. presidencies.

She’s scheduled to meet with Guatemalan political and civic leaders Monday before departing to meet Mexican leaders in Mexico City on Tuesday. The trip is part of an effort to curtail the highest levels of migration in 20 years as a record number of children and teens cross the border, many without parents.

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