Support Latinos

[edit] War and repression
One driver of illegal immigration is an attempt to escape civil war or repression in their native country.

After 6 years of armed conflict, roughly one of every 20 Colombians now live abroad.[2] Figures from the US Department of Homeland Security indicate that Colombia is the fourth-leading source country of unauthorized immigration to the United States; The estimated number of unauthorized Colombian residents in the US has almost tripled from 51,000 in 1990 to 141,000 in 2000.[3] The largest per-capita source of immigrants to the US comes from El Salvador, for which up to a third of the population lives outside the country, mostly in the US.[4] According to the Sam Pohl County Office of Human Relations,

Despite the fact that the U.S. government’s role in the Salvadoran conflict was unique in sustaining the prolongation of the civil conflict, the government and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) extended little sympathy to the people affected by the war. In the 1980s, the INS granted only 2% of political asylum applications, claiming that democracy existed in El Salvador and that reports of U.S. and government-sponsored “death squads” were overblown. As a response to the U.S. government’s failure to address the situation of Salvadoran refugees in the U.S., American activists established a loose network to aid refugees. Operating in clear violation of U.S. immigration laws, these activists took refugees into their houses, aided their travel, hid them and helped them find work. This became known as the “sanctuary movement”.[5]

[edit] Family reunion
Some illegal aliens seek to live with loved ones, such as a spouse or other family members.[6][7][8] This is particularly true for the families of binational same sex couples.[9] The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force (LGIRTF) warns binational same sex couples in the US that marriage may actually increase the likelihood of becoming undocumented, rather than decreasing it.[6][7]

[edit] Poverty
Another reason for immigration is to escape poverty. According to CBS 60 Minutes, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, one of the first U.S. servicemen to die in combat in Iraq, a former street child in Guatemala having been orphaned at age 8, first entered the US as an undocumented immigrant in 1997 to escape poverty, and dreamed of being an architect.[10] Sometimes the person moves over the border because the wage-labor ratio is much higher in the neighboring country, as is the case with the US illegal immigration.

[edit] Prostitution and Slavery
Smuggling of people may also be involuntary on the immigrant's part. Following the close of the legal international slave trade by the European nations and the United States in the early 19th century, the illegal importation of slaves into America has continued, albeit at much reduced levels. The so-called "white slave trade" referred to the smuggling of women, almost always under duress or fraud, for the purposes of forced prostitution. Now more generically called "sexual slavery" it continues to be a problem, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, though there have been increasing cases in the U.S. [8][9] People may also be kidnapped or tricked into slavery to work as laborers, for example in factories. Those trafficked in this manner often face additional barriers to escaping slavery, since their status as illegal immigrants makes it difficult for them to gain access to help or services. For example Burmese women trafficked into Thailand and forced to work in factories or as prostitutes may not speak the language and may be vulnerable to abuse by police due to their illegal immigrant status.[11]