ABC-7 Xtra: Migrant children in their own words

EL PASO, Texas - According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are as many as 9,643 migrant children in HHS custody.

They are part of what UTEP Ph.D. Candidate Georgina Sanchez Garcia calls the new wave of migrants.

As part of her dissertation, Sanchez Garcia took on the task of finding out why children are leaving their homeland and endure thousands of miles of rough terrain under deplorable conditions to try to reach the U.S. border.

With the help of UTEP professor and International Federation of Social Workers commissioner, Mark Lusk, Sanchez Garcia traveled from ports of entry into Mexico to Ciudad Juarez: going directly to the source, interviewing almost a hundred migrant children.

Those children shared their stories with Sanchez Garcia.

The Ph.D. candidate put together a video focusing on some of her findings and posted it on YouTube.

What she found is children are exposed to violence, trafficking and death.

One 10-year-old girl from El Salvador wrote, “The maras chased me and wanted to take me away. I ran, and I ran. I was able to get home, and my mom came out to defend me. They grabbed her and beat her in the middle of the street.”

A 10-year-old boy from Guatemala wrote about what he witnessed when traffickers transported a group of migrants across Mexico.

“The polleros put us on a covered truck. We couldn’t move, and it was too hot. No one was allowed to make noise. A baby wouldn’t stop crying. The driver stopped and scolded the father. Then the father did not remove his hand from the baby’s mouth. I no longer listened to the baby. We were 300 people, I counted them when they put us in a cellar that night.”

ABC-7 Sunday Xtra asked professor Lusk and Sanchez Garcia if they interviewed any children in HHS custody.

Their answer, Sunday night after ABC 7 at 10pm.