The increasing number of the unaccompanied children across the U. S. border press the United States to detain more and more chil

The United States pressured Mexico to step up detentions of migrants after the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U. S. border soared to more than 44, 500 in the first six months of 2014. Last year, Mexican authorities apprehended nearly 36,000 children, more than half of whom were unaccompanied. By comparison, Mexico detained just 9, 600 children in 2013.

But the island — or islands, more than 4, 000 of them — is also a great natural theater. Extending nearly 800 miles, greater than the distance between New York and Atlanta, it embraces mangrove swamps, scrubland, savannas, forests and spectacular coral reefs, habitats for the world’s smallest bird (the bee hummingbird), an alarming leaping crocodile and the ultra-exclusive ivory-billed woodpecker.