While debate over the immigration crisis intensifies, Daniel Ruiz, a USF junior from Guatemala watches as people back home and other countries like Honduras and El Salvador flee their countries.
"Violence is really down the street," said Ruiz. "You can get mugged in your car, you can get mugged walking down the street. Police officers have been known to kidnap people, to harass people, to extort people themselves, so really there's no safe corner."
Ruiz says the trek to America is a dangerous and expensive one.
"It's a great risk to just pack up your kids and send them across, not one border, but two, three borders before they can get to United States,” said Ruiz.
“But it's a risk people are willing to take in order for their kids not to die, or not to end up in jail and die in jail or be part of a gang."
USF Assistant Professor of Sociology, Elizabeth Aranda says a solution would need to be multifaceted.
"It'll have to be something that involves addressing the environments that they're leaving, that are highly insecure environments, where people appear to be afraid for their lives,” said Aranda. “I think that there would have to be some sort of program to help link up the children with family members already in the country, and some sort of refugee resettlement assistance so these children have a pathway to greater security."
Lawmakers are still going back and forth to solve the issue.