COMMENTARY: “Enrique’s Journey” advocates for unaccompanied minors

By MICHELE MATTIA

September 25, 2014

Imagine living in a world where it’s unpredictable if you or one of your family members will make it to see tomorrow.  Now, picture the situation as this being your small child, wandering on their own thousands of miles away from you.  We’ve all become familiar with the issue of illegal immigration across the Mexico-United States border, but one of the crises that we fail to fully take in is the effect this matter has had on countless young children.  Many of them have been separated from their parent(s) who’ve migrated to the US in search of a more prosperous lifestyle.

According to a study by U.N. Refugee Agency, the number of children from children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala making the trek unaccompanied “has doubled each year since 2011, and the U.S. government has estimated that 60,000 children will arrive in the U.S. in the 2014 fiscal year” (journalistsresource.org).

This large community of child migrants is spread throughout the United States, highly in states like Florida, Texas, and New York, but what’s alarming is the population that exists in New Jersey.  According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the unaccompanied children release data from January 1^st to August 21^st of 2014 calculates a total of 2,171.  Now, compared to the nearly 9 million residents of New Jersey, that sounds like a minute ratio of the total population.  But, just consider that these poor children are wandering without guidance and a properly functioning life, and that number out of the 43,419+ now does not seem so insignificant.

One of these migrants was a boy named Enrique, who, after eleven years ventured to go search for his mother who’d been forced to leave her famished family to look for work in the states.  Sonia Nazario followed this boy throughout this dangerous and life changing journey that very well put her life in danger as well, and titled the experience as Enrique’s Journey.  The book not only enraptures what Enrique went through but illustrates the journey many children have gone through along with their parents to find a more sustainable life.  Through photography, video content, and up to date news of Sonia Nazario’s push to get this issue more recognized as to where the migrant child crisis is heading.

This story can be made more local by figuring out one of the more densely populated NJ towns that have been populated by unaccompanied migrants.  One town can be focused on that is densely populated with migrant children, and residents of the town can talk about their experience and what the town itself is doing to help these children.  Is there an orphanage for these children in the densely populated migrant areas?  Are they being housed and cared for?  These are questions that can be asked to town officials to understand the issue in that particular area more fully.  An article by Gram Slattery on The Christian Science Monitor presents a video about organizations spreading awareness about immigrant children in America and talks about viewpoints on the situations in various states.  There is also a Facebook page on the web titled “New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees” by NJAID which, according to the page, is “an alliance of civic and religious organization (individual participation is also welcome). Its goals include bringing attention to the plight of immigrant detainees in our state’s jails; working to improve the conditions in those institutions; and advocating for the reduction and elimination of the use of detention for immigrants.”  These pages, among many, could definitely provide insightful information on the current migrant crises, and offer comradely with other individuals who are passionate about the situation as well.

One of the most captivating sections of the Enrique’s Journey website, I find, is the “Photos of People Who Help.”  Of course, seeing the other photos of survivors is both amazing and saddening because of the battles they’ve encountered and survived, but seeing the effort of people who are nearly as poor help their community shows true compassion.  These images add so much value to the total Web product because these are raw images that can almost bring you to how these people are getting through life.  Even if you don’t own the book you are still able to be moved by this journey of Enrique and thousands of others and be inspired to reach out and promote the cause as well.  A quote by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery is mentioned in Entrepreneurial Journalism which reads, “’A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away (159).’” That profound statement describes simply the impact the website for Enrique’s Journey has had on its viewers and especially those who were inspired to make a change upon their discovery of it.