Teens From Honduras Fighting To Stay With Family In Waukegan
(CBS) -- The future of a 16-year-old boy and his sister from Honduras is unknown after they arrived here illegally to escape violence in their home country.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley takes a look at their fight to stay here.
A mother and three children are a family reunited and are praying to remain that way because two children who just arrived from Honduras could be deported.
"I don't think anyone should go through this, especially when they're young," said Angie Ordonez.
16-year-old Miguel Casco, and his 18-year-old sister Michelle, just arrived as part of the wave of Central American children flooding the border escaping violence.
Four years ago, Miguel says he and his sister witnessed a gang-related triple murder, a crime they say is verified in these documents. Gangs allegedly threatened their lives if they talked making anywhere in Honduras unsafe.
So their 3,000 mile journey began, from Juticalpo, Honduras to Hidalgo, Texas where they were nabbed may 11 by border agents. They were eventually turned over to family to rejoin their mom in Waukegan, who hadn't seen the kids she in 15 years.
Miguel Casco said through a translator that back in Honduras, "…my life would be in danger because we came fleeing danger."
At his first immigration court hearing, Miguel was given time to hire a lawyer to make his case. But his sister Angie, who's not in danger because she's U.S. born, can't imagine losing them now.
"To hear them going away, that's just a nightmare for me," said Angie.
Olga Casco, the mother of the two kids, paid a smuggler $7,000 dollars to get them from Honduras to the U.S. border.
According to immigration sources, the overwhelming majority of the Central American kids at the U.S. border come from three countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, all racked with violence.