I think that to do such a thing, parents must have felt that there was no hope of having a good life in their own country. They must have been so desperate to find a better way, to give a better life to their children, to find a way to escape crushing poverty and violence that threatened their lives and the lives of their children  that they would  give up everything and risk everything for the hope that their children could grow up safe and with better opportunities for their future than they would have by staying put. Very much like the Irish and Germans did in the 19th century, or the Italians and Poles in the early 20th. Or like the people who got in little, barely sea-worthy boats to escape Communism in Cuba did in the mid 20th. The hope that "give me your tired, your poor," was not just a bunch of words on a statue.