Speech highlights kids' plight
Mexico's first lady tells of children deported alone
By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published March 6, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Javier Manzano / The Rocky
Mexico's first lady, Margarita Zavala, is filmed by media as she gives a speech Wednesday.
"Every year, 50,000 children are deported back to Mexico - 22,000 of them unaccompanied," the first lady of Mexico told a Denver audience Wednesday.
Margarita Zavala, wife of Mexican president Felipe Calderon, used her speech to raise the profile of children caught in a mass migration, often alone.
She also thanked the 1,800 people who came to hear her and raise money to send millions of dollars' worth of medical supplies to hospitals and clinics in the poorest parts of Mexico.
Doug Jackson, president of Project C.U.R.E, which hosted Zavala in Denver, said the group hopes to raise up to $200,000 from the event, enough to ship 10 truckloads of medical equipment and supplies worth $4 million to the Mexican states of Chiapas and Tabasco.
The Centennial-based charity collects donated medical supplies, so cash donations pay only for shipping. That means a $20,000 donation to send a truck to Mexico will be leveraged into a shipment of medical supplies worth $400,000, Jackson said.
Zavala thanked her audience for providing so much help, which will go to areas devastated by floods last fall. Hospitals were inundated with water to the ceilings, she said, and 1 million were left homeless.
She also used her appearance at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center to ask Americans to care about "the tragedy of children who travel to the U.S. in search of their parents."
She spoke of one child, Maria, a 7-year-old from Oaxaca who traveled north "accompanied by her mother, in search of her father." But the smuggler insisted on transporting the children separately from the adults.
One smuggler got lost, and dropped the children at a church in Arizona that helped immigrants.
"Maria spent four long months in that church," Zavala said. Maria's story ended well when her mother found her. "Many migrant children never find their mothers," she said.
Mexico's National Migration Institute reported it accepted 50,000 children deported from the U.S. last year. It fed and housed them while looking for their families. Some were deported again, to home countries farther south.
Post your comment
Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
Featured
-
Denver turns 150
Read about the city's history, look at old photos and see a list of influential Denverites.
-
Mount Crushmore
Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.
-
Winter Escapes
Your insider’s guide to the copious joys of the coolest season.
-
Rocky Multimedia
The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.
-
Weekend plans?
Figure out things to do this weekend with the help of our entertainment calendar.
-
Bronco Dean's rant
Listen to Bronco Dean's pregame rant on the Raiders.
-
Season To Share
The Post-News Season To Share campaign provides grants to area nonprofits.
-
The Rocky @ 150 Years
The Rocky was there when Colorado became a state in 1876. Read our coverage.
-
A Dozen on Denver
And the winner is... Robert Ziegler! See the whole fiction series by clicking here.
March 6, 2008
8:18 a.m.
Suggest removal
kathyM writes:
I love how she used the word "migration," as if crossing the border with smugglers and no documentation is legal.
It's too bad kids get separated from their families. But their parents were foolish enough to break the law AND trust criminals who care only about money.
March 6, 2008
8:43 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
That is a wonderful charity, and there should be more like them. If Mexico were more habitable, maybe fewer illegal crossings would occur...meanwhile The Mexican First Lady talks about children lost crossing the border alone to search for thier parents, and gives the example of one crossing not alone, but with mom, to look for dad. HUH?? That kid wasn't alone till the cyote separated them, and mom could have said no...how sorry do I feel for them??
How stupid do we appear to be, really? How many 5-15 year olds born and raised in Mexico, get up one morning and decide to head north alone to find the folks?
In this country when a parent leaves a child unattended while they leave the country, it's called abandonment, and is punishable by law. Maybe in addition to deportation, these parents should be stripped of rights in thier home country, to discourage such behavior.
Now I expect to get jumped on, because a bleeder will reason that the parents are leaving them behind to secure a better life for them...I answer in advance...No. They leave them behind to limit encumberance, period. If they were thinking of thier kids, they would stay with them, at home, untill such time as legal documentation could be obtained for the entire family.
March 6, 2008
9:26 a.m.
Suggest removal
CWW writes:
It's good that CURE is helping with medical supplies, etc. However, for Ms. Zavala to use this as a podium to push the illegal immigrant agenda is deplorable.
Keep your criminal illegals, Ms. Zavala, whether or not they are children.
March 6, 2008
9:28 a.m.
Suggest removal
fiesty writes:
Sorry that the children suffer for the actions of their illegal parents, but even children of US citizens suffer when their folks break the law.
March 6, 2008
9:41 a.m.
Suggest removal
vudumom writes:
The richest man on the Forbes List is a Mexican Telecom Executive.Why is American charities giving medical supplies to Mexico while American citizens can't get free healthcare but illegals can?Why don't the rich in Mexico take care of their own?It's because bleeding heart American santuary charities rather take American tax money and donations and take care of other people who don't need it.Stop sending money and aid to a country that is wealthy but claiming poverty and putting on a convincing poor pitiful me act.While the rich are getting richer in Mexico,our tax money is sent to Mexico to further enrich the wealthy and they have a thriving tourist industry,so why do we have to pay Mexico anything?Make them take care of their own people and stop enabling them. We still have to pay billions in tax money to take care of all the illegals in our country.This is getting to be a bit much.when are Americans going to rally by the thousands in cities all over the country to demand our rights we should have as citizens.The rule of law being one of them.Not being overtaxed being another.
Oh thats right we have to work and will lose our jobs if we take off and our children will be suspended from school if they join the protest and wave an American flag.
March 6, 2008
10:30 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
LOLOLOL...Mexico is a wealthy country...I haven't laughed that hard in sooo long.
March 6, 2008
11:13 a.m.
Suggest removal
FlyfishDude52 writes:
vudumom- While I agree with most of your comment, saying that Mexico is a wealthy country is just plain ignorant. Mexico, like all third world countries, have a few of the very wealthy who have become that way by exploiting the masses which are little different than the serfs of mideval times. I agree, get those fat cats to give of themselves to help their country. I'm guessing that any plea of that sort would fall on deaf ears. "What? Give back to the poor what I've already extorted from them? You must be mad!" the wealthy telecom guy says.
And CURE... Why why why can't you get your priorities straight? Help your own countrymen (I'm assuming it is the USA) in need before you start sending it to a nation that is hellbent on destroying us by illegally entering, usurping health services, schools, jails and housing, just to mention a few of the services that you, Mr & Mrs taxpayer are funding. Screw CURE. If you want to be a philanthropist get it right. No one on my side of the street is stupid enough to give you anything. If it weren't for PT Barnum teaching us that a fool was born every minute (obviously they're the ones supporting you) you would have nothing to share.
March 6, 2008
11:20 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
http://www.projectcure.org/
Worldwide charity organisations should continue to focus on thier work with third-world countries. I think we can probably manage without thier help. Donations are Tax Deductable, BTW.
March 6, 2008
12:20 p.m.
Suggest removal
vudumom writes:
How much money does our government give Mexico every year? Every year the top officials pocket the money.Mexico also has a thriving tourist industry.Where is that money going?That is my point.Mexico is wealthy but extremely corrupt.So we should just keep enabling them by pouring good money after bad?While they send their poorist citizens to invade our country bleed it dry and send BILLIONS back to the Mexican economy?Come on people,stop falling for the poor pitiful me stories.Mexico wants to be a third world country.How else are they going to bleed the U.S. citizens dry?
March 6, 2008
12:49 p.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
I'll bite...How much money does our government give Mexico every year? How many other governments receive US aid? Do you have issues with Mexico specifically, or toward all impovereshed countries with corrupt officials?
How can you base a supposition like "Mexico wants to be a third world country" on the supposition that thier ultimate goal is to "bleed the US citizens dry"?
That makes absolutely no sense at all.
And not every Mexican lives in in a tourist town. Surely you understand that most of Mexico is rural and poor.
Charity is a good idea, whereas allowing illegal crossings to go unanswered is not. Why confuse the topic further with distain toward charitable contributing to the lives of less fortunate people? If you would rather donate to domestic charities, you should. But I would not condemn the donation of medical supplies because of the anger you have about how our country handles illegals.
Have you ever been to Mexico? It's a cesspool. The more we can do to help make it better, the less we have to work at keeping them out of our country.