By Maria Leon

NOGALES, Arizona – Arizona is the state from which the greater part of undocumented Mexican minors detained by U.S. immigration authorities are deported.

The children in question were caught trying to cross the U.S. border without being in the company of an adult.

Information provided to Efe by Mexico’s foreign ministry shows that in 2008, Mexican consulates located along the southern U.S. border handled the repatriation of 17,772 unaccompanied minors, 83 percent of them boys.

The consulate that handled the largest number of the repatriations of such detainees was the one in Nogales, with 5,604; followed by San Diego, with 4,030, and McAllen, Texas, with 1,763.

“These figures show us the complexity of the problem of repatriating minors. They reflect the reality of the minors who are repatriated through Nogales,” Mexico’s consul here, Beatriz Lopez Gargallo, told Efe.

Lopez Gargallo said that Nogales is No. 1 in repatriations because it is also the spot where minors who have been detained in other states in the U.S. interior are sent for deportation.

“They are very vulnerable people due to their young ages who are seeking a better life, to unite with their parents and who can be the targets of unscrupulous people and fall into the (hands of those) trafficking of minors,” she added.

Last year, 54 percent of the minors repatriated to Mexico were between the ages of 12 and 16, while another 40 percent were 17.

Upon being interviewed, 64 percent of the minors repatriated in 2008 said that the main reason they had tried to get into the United States was to seek work, while 20 percent said that they did so to join a family member who was already here and 5.2 percent said they came here to go to school.

The rest gave other reasons like vagrancy, tourism and drug trafficking.

“An important number of minors are seeking work given the critical economic situation in their homes, others already have a father or mother working here and are trying to join them,” said Lopez Gargallo.

Of the total number of repatriated minors, 33 percent had finished high school.

The Mexican states with the greatest numbers of repatriated minors are Michoacan, with 8.7 percent of the total, followed by Guanajuato, with 8.1 percent, Oaxaca with 7 percent, and Guerrero, with 6.4 percent.

“We see how the main sending states are located in central and southern Mexico, which means that the minors are covering long distances to get to the border,” said the diplomat.

She added that although Arizona is the most-used corridor for undocumented border crossings, the final destinations of the immigrants are California, for 31.9 percent of the total repatriated minors, followed by Texas, 25.3 percent, and Arizona, 10.4 percent.

During 2008, 493 indigenous minors were repatriated, 2.7 percent of the total, of whom 25 percent were Mixtec Indians, 14.7 percent were Zapotecs and 14.32 percent were Nahuas.

Lopez Gargallo warned that one of the main changes to occur in 2009 with regard to the repatriation of minors is the implementation of the U.S. federal law prohibiting the trafficking of people for purposes of sexual or labor exploitation.

Under the new regulations, when a minor is found to be traveling alone without the company of one of his parents or legal guardian, he or she may be taken to a shelter while an investigation is conducted into the case, a process that could delay the reunification of the child with his or her parents by several months.

“Since this law entered into force, at this consulate we have had 32 cases,” said the consul. EFE