U.S. sends first planeload of moms, children back to Honduras

The first lady and her entourage were waiting. So were politicians, camera crews and aid workers in blue vests, ready to hand out suckers and balloons to toddlers pulled along by their frazzled mothers. A chartered flight that landed here Monday was the first carrying only mothers and children deported by the U.S. as it tries to stem a wave of migration from Central America that has overwhelmed U.S. border officials. U.S. officials said there would be many more. While Honduran officials were trying to put the best face on the process, one human rights worker termed the exodus of thousands in search of jobs or safety from rampant violence, and their forced return by the United States, “a great tragedy.” Critics said Honduran government inaction was largely responsible and that the welcome in San Pedro Sula, a city sometimes called the murder capital of the world, was mostly a show. Despite the government's promise of job leads, a $500 stipend, psychological counseling and schooling, returning mother Angelica Galvez said she wasn't expecting much. “They haven't helped me before,” said Galvez, 31, who was traveling with her 6-year-old daughter, Abigail. “Why should I believe them now?” Galvez and her daughter were among the 38 Hondurans on the flight, who had been held at a U.S. detention center in Artesia, N.M. Forty people — 18 mothers, 13 girls and nine boys — had been scheduled to be on the flight, but two fell ill and didn't travel...more