VOA慢速英语--被美国驱逐出境的洪都拉斯人无法返回家园

No Going Home for Hondurans Expelled¹ from US

They cannot go home again.

For many Hondurans forced to return to their place of birth, home means a return to the violence that sent them fleeing the country in the first place.

In the neighborhoods where they grew up, bodies are left unceremoniously in areas where workers are putting up buildings. Human remains² are often carried away as if they were a load of food.

Heavily armed police watch from the back of pickup³ trucks. They stop to search passersby⁴ for weapons, drugs or signs they have ties to criminals.

At home, a crying woman tries to wash blood from the walkway where her relative was killed.

For those returning to Honduras, home is a neighborhood ruled by murderous gangs⁶ who want money and demand that young men become gang⁵ members. They kill those who refuse to obey.

These Hondurans cannot go back home. So many seek protection at a shelter for troubled youth in the capital, Tegucigalpa. At the shelter, the young men tell their stories.

Alexis, 18, arrived at the shelter two years ago after being sent home from Mexico. He says gang members threatened him many times because he would not join them. His mother told him he had to run.

Salm, 14, left home after gang members threatened to kill him for refusing to join. He was staying at a shelter in Nicaragua, but that country sent him back.

Jus, 15, fled Honduras after his father was murdered. He went to Guatemala, which sent him back.

“I can’t go back to where I was born,” Jus says. “In any case, I don’t have any family there any longer.”

The Associated Press is not publishing the full names of the young men or the shelter where they are staying for safety reasons.

Many deported⁸ families no longer have a home. They sold everything to pay for a trip north. Now they have nowhere to go, and in many cases, they still owe money for the trip.

A woman named Larissa, her husband and their two children left home after the Mara Salvatrucha gang tried to force her 14-year-old son to join.

Years earlier, gang members shot her husband 14 times when he refused to give them money. He survived. Three of her cousins joined the gangs and all died young.

If you join, you get killed, she said, adding “That’s what happened to them.”

She and her family reached Mexico, but were sent back to Honduras. They lived with relatives in Honduras’ countryside. Her husband found work to save for another trip north. She said she could not move back to her hometown, El Progreso. But she did make a visit to get a copy of the police report she had made about the gang. She hoped it will help the family get asylum⁹ in the United States. She said they will try “when things are calm.”

Days later, the family left Honduras to try to reach the United States again.

In Tegucigalpa, many children remain at home as long as they can. On a recent day, smiling boys with toy guns make-believe they are police and gangsters¹⁰. When asked who they would like to be, they say the police.

Today it is a game. One day, those boys may have to make a decision: whether to join a gang, or to flee their homes.

I'm Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

deport⁷ – v. to send out of the country someone who is not a citizen

gang– n.a group of criminals who are loyal¹¹ to each other

toy – n.a thing that children play with

1 expelled   

驱逐( expel的过去式和过去分词 )； 赶走； 把…除名； 排出

参考例句：

• She was expelled from school at 15. 她15岁时被学校开除了。
• After the outbreak of fighting,all foreign journalists were expelled. 战斗开始后，所有的外国记者都被驱逐出境。

2 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。

3 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

4 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

5 gang   

n.一伙，一帮；结伴的朋友

参考例句：

• The gang live abroad,beyond reach of the British police.这帮匪徒住在国外，英国警方鞭长莫及。
• Some gang came in and shot the place up.有股匪帮进来对这个地方开枪扫射。

6 gangs   

n.（罪犯有组织的）一帮( gang的名词复数 )；一伙；（闹事青少年的）一群；（工人有组织的）一队

参考例句：

• Gangs of youths went on the rampage in the city yesterday. 成群结伙的年轻人昨天在城里横冲直撞。
• a vicious turf war between rival gangs of drug dealers 对立贩毒团伙之间的猛烈火并

7 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

8 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

10 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

11 loyal   

adj.忠诚的，忠心的

参考例句：

• He is a loyal friend.他是一位忠诚的朋友。
• I judge him to be loyal.我认为他很忠诚。