Pregnant migrants want their kids to be American
Two months ago, Marisol Hernandez's husband was gunned down by gangsters for refusing to work for them. For the pregnant 23-year-old, that was the last straw.
She left her two children with her grandmother and decided to set off among thousands of other Honduran migrants in a bid to reach the United States. In her case, because she wants her next child to "be American." She is far from alone. Dozens of pregnant women are among the migrants, now in Mexico, fleeing poverty and violence in their homeland in search of the American dream.
But the hope that her unborn child will be American and "graduate in something, study, speak English, know about computers and things like that," is being threatened by President Donald Trump's apparent determination to abolish birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and non-citizens.
"It's ridiculous. And it has to end," said Trump of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment that grants US citizenship to those born on US soil.
For now, Hernandez is hoping that in six months' time, her newborn baby will become a citizen of the United States. Her story is a harrowing, but typical of those amongst the estimated 7,000-strong caravan heading through Mexico toward California. She used to work in a clothing shop but two months ago "mareros," gang members, killed her husband with "a bullet between the eyes" on his doorstep as he returned from work.
"He refused to work as an extortionist," said Hernandez. The next day, she started receiving threats. She left her two children behind "because I can barely feed them" and set off in search of a better future.
