VOA慢速英语2014 援助组织和志愿者帮助美国解决移民危机

 

AS IT IS 2014-07-14 Aid Groups, Volunteers Help US with Immigrant Crisis 援助组织和志愿者帮助美国解决移民危机

Many people have left Central America with hopes of coming to the United States. About 57,000 children have crossed the U.S. border without a family member or legal guardian¹ over the past few months.  

The U.S. government uses buildings to hold undocumented immigrants along its southern border. But those detention² centers are now full. Government agencies are struggling to deal with the hundreds of children who enter the country illegally every day. So, religious organizations, aid groups and volunteers are helping³ the government deal with what has become a humanitarian⁴ crisis. 

Catholic Charities for the Rio Grande Valley operates a large service for Central American migrants. The group has a center in McAllen, Texas -- a city close to the Mexican border. 

Ermana Norma Pimentel is the local Catholic Charities director.  She says volunteers help process about 200 people a day. She says the new arrivals usually are very tired after a very long trip.

“It was sad to see them in those conditions. They needed to take a shower, they needed food. They needed clothing and so they (the volunteers) started to respond. The families here locally went to the bus station and actually helped these folks with some provisions.”

The group works with the government to make sure the immigrants are well-treated.

Marcela Riojas is a doctor. She says 90 percent of the Central American migrants are extremely tired and need water. If they are injured or very sick, they are sent to a hospital. Some of the women arriving are pregnant. Dr. Riojas says many of them are nearly ready to give birth. She says the women have traveled for more than a month, often without medical care or enough food and water.

“The journey itself is a high-risk travel or trip for any person, and being pregnant, well it puts you in a higher risk beyond the high-risk that you are at, because you don’t know exactly what the medical care has been before -- if the patient had already high pregnancy⁵, a high-risk pregnancy, what medical conditions they have.”

Some immigrants are brought to McAllen after they have been registered at the border. Carl Henderson once worked as a border patrol agent. He says the registration⁶, or documentation, process for every person takes four to five hours.

“Each one of these people have to be fingerprinted⁷ electronically, each one of ‘em has to be photographed, and you can imagine doing this with children. And then, there’s different rules for juveniles⁸ under a certain age and other juveniles, which again allows a lot of room for fraud and things. What we’re running, the Border Patrol tells me, now the agents I know now, they tell me they’re having a lot of pseudo-families -- pretend families. A guy’s coming up and he runs into some children who are coming up and he says here’s the deal: ‘I’ll be your uncle or I’ll be your dad, and this way we all get released, but if you don’t have an uncle or a dad, or a parent, somebody with you then you are going into detention, I am going into detention, it may take months for us to come out of it.’”

Mr. Henderson says people who pay others to bring them to the United States are making a big mistake. He says some of the traffickers, also known as coyotes, have been known to kill or injure the migrants. About a third of the women are raped⁹ on the trip. Some boys are sexually abused.

Even if the migrants reach the United States, the danger of the trip -- and the harm they have experienced -- will change their lives forever.

1 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

2 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

5 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

6 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

7 fingerprinted   

v.指纹( fingerprint的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The criminal was fingerprinted in the sheriff's office. 罪犯在警长办公室里被取下指纹。 来自辞典例句
• They were then taken to be photographed and fingerprinted. 然后，他们被带去照相、留指纹。 来自互联网

8 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

9 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句