They plan to jump onboard and ride on top of the train all the way to the United States border The number of migrant children detained at the U.S. border has skyrocketed it could hit 90,000 over the course of this year But it's not just minor children rushing to the border Large numbers of single women with kids are coming as well All along the train tracks outside the central Mexican town of Tequixquiac, groups of migrants are on the move, looking for an opportunity to hop aboard a northbound train all the way to the U.S. border It's early in the morning and he's serving hot instant coffee and sweet bread but his baby face with a few stray chin hairs looks much younger then they let you work in the United States says he hears that a lot from the increasing number of kids he's seen traveling alone through Mexico lately He says earlier this week there was a 5-year-old traveling alone The boy got separated from his father but kept going had been sewn into the waistband of his pants While the number of children traveling alone has surged in recent months officials say so has the number of single mothers with kids we find a group of 17 migrants resting under a tree There are three other mothers in the group says she can't find a job and is sick of standing on the streets taking people's blood pressure for spare change who is jumping up and down on the railroad tracks Rodriguez says he was desperate in Honduras His wife left him two years ago; there is no work The United Nations surveyed more than 400 migrants caught at the U.S By far the main reason for making the migration north was to escape the gangs and violence "When there is a real increase in violence then women and children will be the ones that are fleeing because they want to protect themselves," Sutton says Refugee shelters throughout Mexico are inundated with small children and women Deportations of minor children from Mexico to Central America have nearly tripled in the past three years A spokeswoman for the Mexican immigration service says the numbers are not alarming and insists Mexico is providing humane treatment for all migrants in the country Human rights workers dispute that claim and say there is abuse and overcrowding President Obama and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto agreed in a phone call Thursday that the two countries need to work together to help stem the surge of Central American children traveling to the U.S Maria Albaringa and her niece aren't thinking that far ahead but then they'll either be released with a paper ordering them to appear in immigration court or they'll have to pay a bond They both say they are praying for the paper Become an NPR sponsor Print Reporting from TEQUIXQUIAC Mexico — Claudia Sanchez crouched on a grassy slope alongside the railroad tracks It had already been a long journey from Honduras to central Mexico clinging with her baby to the top of a rickety train They still had a thousand or so miles to go to reach the U.S ran up and down the empty rails with Ethan they were waiting for the next arrival of La Bestia (The Beast) one of several so-named freight trains that thousands of mostly Central American migrants ride hobo-style northward the answers from Sanchez and others are nearly uniform: gang violence at home But press a little more deeply and many acknowledge having been told — by friends or smugglers — that it can be easier these days to cross into the United States and stay although it seems that most have at least a protector — often the paid coyote Ixel played with a blue stuffed dog and looked sickly but it’s not 100% guaranteed,” said Juan Artiaga of the Honduran island of Roatan “The Americans treat us fine,” said another Honduran making the trek with his 4-year-old daughter children with a single parent or lone women making the perilous crossing through Mexico from Central America to the United States is at least two decades old in part because the numbers have shot up and the issue has been politicized in Washington the Obama administration has recognized it as an “urgent humanitarian issue,” while Republican opponents blame the president for attracting the crowds in the first place by loosening border-crossing restrictions sought to discourage the word-of-mouth exodus and the government announced a crackdown on detentions and deportations her 5-month-old daughter bundled in a pink hoodie and strapped to her waist (so her hands were free to grab onto the train) said she had an aunt in Houston who had offered her a place to live with a mouth full of bright white teeth and a large blue cross around his neck even as the train he was on moved through the night and he heard screams “Sometimes I protect her and sometimes she protects me,” Moises said said a friend had telephoned him to say that minors were being allowed to enter the U.S So far he’d been beaten up twice on the train a group that grew exponentially after the 2009 coup there The trip can take weeks or months; some get off the train along the way to beg or work and those with children stop to rest and maybe pick up donated diapers or food before hopping another train the luckier ones wedging themselves between jostling cars Almost every one of them has had to pay bribes the notorious Zetas drug and extortion paramilitary force has been replaced by members of the equally ruthless Mara Salvatrucha gang originally from Los Angeles and El Salvador They charge the migrants $100 at each stop they try to throw you off the train,” Calix adding that he had seen five people shot to death because they didn’t have the money having been deported 31/2 weeks ago after four years in Sacramento where he lived with his wife and three children and worked for a veterinarian Obama spoke by telephone Thursday to his Mexican counterpart urging him to “target the criminals that lure families to send children on the dangerous journey,” according to a White House statement Obama asked Peña Nieto to alert migrants of the “likelihood that they will be returned to Central America,” the White House said Mexican officials have been schizophrenic on the issue sometimes ignoring the migrants and at others abusing them or rounding them up for deportation money to toughen its notoriously porous southern frontier Mexico has been reluctant to emulate the kind of U.S.-border crackdown it prefers has frequently criticized Many Central Americans detained by Mexican authorities are held in limbo for weeks or months in dank detention facilities As the migration of women and children increases send them back to their origins so they are exposed and killed?” a Roman Catholic priest based in Oaxaca and well-known for his work with migrants has filmed alleged victims of torture or beatings from the detention centers which are called “migratory stations” by Mexican officials “The migratory stations have become maximum-security prisons where migrants are treated like members of organized crime,” Solalinde said this week during several appearances in Mexico City migrants rely on help from priests like Solalinde church-run shelters and the occasional good Samaritan Rodriguez has been making almost daily trips to the tracks near his home here in Tequixquiac hauling coffee and bread in the morning and rice and beans around lunchtime giving out medicines and donated clothing when he has them The other day he ran across a 5-year-old Salvadoran in a Sesame Street T-shirt who had been abandoned by his father apparently while fleeing a round-up by police He had the telephone number of a relative in Atlanta sewn into the waistband of his shorts and a few days later hopped a northbound train “Sometimes I’m sad to see the train go and never know the fate of those aboard,” Rodriguez said He was handing out bread to the two toddlers It was actually just the roar of a distant truck There would be hours to wait for the train wilkinson@latimes.com World & Nation Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience Many women with small kids are making the journey in the belief that they are.. The Surge In Single Women With Children At The U.S.-Mexico Border are challenging an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office pausing approvals permits and loans for all wind energy projects Square root days happen only a few times in a century and the man who brought the day fame is celebrating his sixth one more than a dozen former workers of the powerful data-mining and surveillance company say the firm's work with the Trump administration violates the company's founding principles Israel's cabinet has approved plans for Gaza that include expanding the war taking territory with the intent to keep troops there and major shifts in the way food and aid are distributed Our correspondent in Tel Aviv tells us what are in the plans and what they could mean for Gaza Production in Hollywood has been suffering But it's unclear how a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States would work – or who it would help The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday afternoon Percival Everett won the award for fiction for his novel James a powerful re-imagination of Huckleberry Finn The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower is set to peak early on May 6 and will be viewable in the dark predawn skies the Trump administration confirmed that it terminated visa records for thousands of international students because of past brushes with law enforcement Microsoft has announced that the pioneering online video calling service that's been around for more than two decades will go offline on Monday Emmitsburg is home to the National Fire Academy The Trump administration's decision to halt classes has some townspeople pondering their votes The prison on a forbidding island off San Francisco was operated at a prohibitive cost President Trump says it's time to substantially enlarge and rebuild Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary they're a key force in addressing the country's high rate of maternal mortality It’s quite unusual for people who are sentenced to execution to survive 25-year-old Wenseslao Moguel was fighting on the side of Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution When he was captured by Mexican authorities he was immediately sentenced to death for being a traitor There was no trial or defense of any manner and on March 18th he was placed in front of a firing squad consisting of nine soldiers An officer was standing by to deliver the last shot into a major organ to ensure death delivered the last shot to the head and Moguel was left for dead at the church of Saint James Apostle in downtown Santiago Tequixquiac he was found by a parishioner who looked after him until he was healed Moguel gained the nickname “El Fusilado” which means “the executed one.” In 1937 Moguel became a bit of a celebrity after appearing on the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Although his face was disfigured by the bullet that went in just below his cheekbone on the right side and exited below his eye on the left side he lived until the age of 85 and died in Mexico in 1975 A song about the attempted execution of Wenseslao Moguel titled “El Fusilado,” was released in 2008 by British band Chumbawamba in 1740 — teenager William Duell was sentenced to death along with four others for raping The five boys were hung and taken to the local surgeon’s college where their bodies would be used to educate future doctors After about ten minutes a nurse heard groaning from the area in which Duell lay Upon discovering their “corpse” was still alive the doctors used the common practice of letting blood He was incoherent for some time after his ordeal but after a fitful sleep of about seven hours and consuming some broth and a glass of wine he was able to be questioned Duell had no memory of the crime or of being hanged Londoner John Smith was sentenced to hang after being convicted of robbery he was taken by cart to Tyburn to be hanged The noose was placed around his neck and the cart was pulled away The crowd begged for reprieve and Smith was cut down and soon recovered at a nearby home upon being asked what it felt like to be hanged Smith replied sensible of very great pain occasioned by the weight of my body and felt my spirits in strange commotion Having forced their way to my head I saw a great blaze or glaring light that seemed to go out of my eyes in a flash and then I lost all sense of pain.” I began to come to myself and the blood and spirits forcing themselves into their former channels put me by a prickling or shooting into such intolerable pain that I could have wished those hanged who had cut me down.” In 1801 British citizen Joseph Samuel was sent to the penal colony in Australia for robbery he and some other men robbed a home and killed the security guard In 1803 the authorities captured Samuel who admitted to the robbery but claimed he had not participated in the murder As they had no evidence to convict the other men Samuel took the brunt and was sentenced to hang Read another story from us: Pancho Villa last words were “It can’t end like this. Tell them I said something” He was taken to Parramatta and when the rope was placed around his neck and the cart taken away the rope broke but this time the rope became loose and Samuel was able to touch the ground The Governor believed it was a sign from God and changed his sentence to life imprisonment Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News Join 1000s of subscribers and receive the best Vintage News in your mailbox for FREE