The National Immigration Institute (INM) says the number of migrant children detained by immigration authorities in Mexico more than doubled in the first six months of 2019 compared with the same period last year.
Agents arrested 33,122 migrants who were under 18 years of age, 131% more than last year. Of those, 8,525 were traveling without their families.
Almost all the child migrants came from the Northern Triangle of Central America and of those, more than half were from Honduras.
There was an even more significant growth in the number of female children and adolescents detained: the number almost tripled, from 4,936 to 13,671. The number of boys doubled from 9,343 to 19,451.
On Wednesday, a bus carrying 108 Honduran migrants was stopped in a joint operation by security forces in Tabasco. There were 23 children among them.
Source: Milenio (sp)
