美国国家公共电台 NPR As Border Crossings Tick Up, Migrants Bring Children, Take More Dangerous Routes

As Border Crossings Tick Up, Migrants Bring Children, Take More Dangerous Routes

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The number of immigrants illegally crossing the southern border plummeted¹ when Donald Trump² took office, but the number is again on the rise. In response, the president plans to deploy³ up to 4,000 National Guard troops. As NPR's John Burnett reports from West Texas, immigrant shelters are overflowing⁴ with recent arrivals. And some migrants are trying more dangerous routes to evade⁵ capture.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁶: The intake⁷ room at Annunciation House, an immigrant shelter in downtown El Paso, is packed these days. Parents and squirming children sit with their travel bags. They are the aggravations of Donald Trump.

LESLIE MORAN: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: Thirteen-year-old Leslie Moran, with a ponytail and a Minnie Mouse shirt, says she and her father, Daniel, left Honduras because there was so much crime and she couldn't attend school anymore. "They threaten you, and they rob you," she says. "We came here so I'd have a new opportunity to study." Her journey north and thousands like it have bedeviled the Trump administration just as they did President Obama. New figures show in this mini-surge in March a 200 percent increase in border apprehensions⁸ compared to last year. Agents detained nearly 40,000. Most were families or kids traveling alone from Central America.

RUBEN GARCIA: People have made the fundamental decision that they can no longer be in their country.

BURNETT: That's Ruben Garcia, for 40 years the director of Annunciation House. He says his shelter is receiving about 400 people a week. Immigration and Customs Enforcement books them, straps⁹ on electronic ankle monitors and drops them off at his center. They're given a shower, a hot meal and a ride to the Greyhound station. They continue their journeys to Seattle or Los Angeles or Atlanta, where they check in with ICE and wait for their day in immigration court. Garcia says so many immigrants are traveling with their children these days because the smugglers tell them to.

GARCIA: Bring one of your kids because you stand a better chance of not getting locked up right off the bat. And so that's part of the way that the smuggler¹⁰ presents it.

BURNETT: The Trump administration asserts that some immigrants know the game. Families and minors¹¹ know that under catch-and-release, they'll be able to live in the U.S. for years while their cases work their way through overloaded¹² immigration courts. Moreover, Trump says immigrants are coming to take advantage of a program called DACA that he tried to terminate. It gives benefits to unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Chris Carlin, a public defender¹³ in the region, says that's nonsense.

CHRIS CARLIN: I have quite literally¹⁴ represented thousands of defendants¹⁵. I have never heard a defendant¹⁶ have any idea what DACA is. That is meaningless to them.

BURNETT: A half-dozen Central Americans interviewed at Annunciation House, to a person, said they came here to escape thuggery and joblessness in their hometowns. They walked across the international bridge and surrendered. Others are taking greater risks. They're crossing the Rio Grande and making a dangerous trek¹⁷ through remote mountains and desert.

RONNY DODSON: They're coming in droves now. I just - we see them two or three groups at a time.

BURNETT: Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson says his deputies are finding young men, dead and alive, who have hiked a hundred miles across this stark¹⁸ landscape. In December, they discovered the remains¹⁹ of a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy on a ranch²⁰ near Alpine²¹.

DODSON: He'd been there a few days. It just didn't happen. He'd been there for a while. You know, it was cold. The weather was cold. So, I mean, it wasn't a lot of decomposing²² like it normally does. But it's not pretty.

BURNETT: On a recent patrol along a winding²³ gravel²⁴ road near the Rio Grande, border agent Rush Carter, who rode this country as a cowboy in his former life, describes what he sees.

RUSH CARTER: Really rugged²⁵ country - large mountains, deep canyons²⁶, a lot of brush, a lot of cactus²⁷, a lot of rock. Very tough country to walk through on foot.

BURNETT: Border Patrol agents complain that too often they're forced to spend time processing undocumented immigrants they catch. They can take an agent out of the field all day, especially if it's a kid that requires more attention. Robert Boatright is chief patrol agent in the Big Bend.

ROBERT BOATRIGHT: We're being more methodical with the children. We do welfare checks every 15 minutes on unaccompanied children, right? You know, we're making sure that the children get fed. They may get snacks.

BURNETT: The Border Patrol hopes the National Guard can assist with some of these duties so that its agents can get back into the field to deal with the current surge of immigrants. John Burnett, NPR News, El Paso.

1 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

4 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

5 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

8 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

9 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

10 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

11 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 overloaded   

a.超载的，超负荷的

参考例句：

• He's overloaded with responsibilities. 他担负的责任过多。
• She has overloaded her schedule with work, study, and family responsibilities. 她的日程表上排满了工作、学习、家务等，使自己负担过重。

13 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

14 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

15 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

16 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

17 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

18 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

20 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

21 alpine   

adj.高山的；n.高山植物

参考例句：

• Alpine flowers are abundant there.那里有很多高山地带的花。
• Its main attractions are alpine lakes and waterfalls .它以高山湖泊和瀑布群为主要特色。

22 decomposing   

腐烂( decompose的现在分词 )； （使）分解； 分解（某物质、光线等）

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the overpowering stench of decomposing vegetation. 空气中充满了令人难以忍受的腐烂植物的恶臭。
• Heat was obtained from decomposing manures and hot air flues. 靠肥料分解和烟道为植物提供热量。

23 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

24 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

25 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

26 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

27 cactus   

n.仙人掌

参考例句：

• It was the first year that the cactus had produced flowers.这是这棵仙人掌第一年开花。
• The giant cactus is the vegetable skycraper.高大的仙人掌是植物界巨人。