Immigrant population impact on Delmarva

EASTON, Md. – Immigration experts on Delmarva say that Central American migrants who are traveling to the United States may be looking at the peninsula as a place to start a new life.

According to the Executive Director of the Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center, Matthew Peters, people from countries like Honduras and Guatemala are simply looking to escape from miserable conditions back home.

Peters said many of these migrants face extreme poverty, violence and are even stripped of any sort of documentation.

According to immigration officials, these migrants are also not always well-informed and depend on word of mouth to get to places like Delmarva.

Officials said they walk thousands of miles in big groups, and it is all because some police officers, military and even some criminals target them.

According to Peters, more than half of all Latinos on Delmarva are from Central America, and they depend on local resources for help.

“They’re coming from communities and rural places in Central America, so their understanding of all the different geographic places in the United States, we can assume very little to none,” said Peters.

“We do see a lot of people from the same region coming to our community just for that chance that they’ll have someone that will guide them a little more, speak their language, speak their dialect and just be able to get them orientated and feel a little bit safer,” said Peters.

The Executive Director also said he receives about three migrant families in need of help every week, and it is mainly because they have family ties in the area.

In regards to law enforcement, Peters said it is critical to remember that anyone has the right to remain silent unless there is a court decision. He added that many of the resources these people depend on are private immigration attorneys and local community centers.