Homicide Statistics Help Explain Arrival of Central American Children to Long Island

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The National Civil Police reported 3,875 murders in 2014 compared with 2,490 the year before.
The National Civil Police reported 3,875 murders in 2014 compared with 2,490 the year before.

When young Central Americans began arriving in high numbers in the United States last year, a common question was why the increase in arrivals now? The region had suffered from gang violence for more than a decade. What was different in 2014?

El Salvador, the source of the largest number of refugee children to arrive on Long Island, released its 2014 murder statistics last week and they help provide part of the answer. Homicides in El Salvador rose by 56 percent last year. Gang truces broke down, setting off widespread violence. The National Civil Police reported 3,875 murders in 2014 compared with 2,490 the year before. New York City, with 2 million more people than El Salvador, had 328 killings in the same period.

Fulbright Scholar Elizabeth Kennedy has conducted interviews with 600 newly arrived children from El Salvador. According to her research, 58% of the children say they left to escape gang violence. This reinforces findings by University of California professor Tom K. Wong as well as a report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

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Patrick Young blogs daily for Long Island Wins. He is the Downstate Advocacy Director of the New York Immigration Coalition and Special Professor of Immigration Law at Hofstra School of Law. He served as the Director of Legal Services and Program at Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) for three decades before retiring in 2019. Pat is also a student of immigration history and the author of The Immigrants' Civil War.

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