Dafne wants to be a chef and Roberto, a soccer player. Emiliano likes cookies and cakes. Desireé misses her bunny, Copito, and Marco hopes that his new school will have many parks to play in. The dreams of migrant boys and girls who cross Mexico do not fit in a suitcase, although many times that is the only thing they carry on their way to the United States. Mexico is the last square in a long obstacle course that began months or years ago in Venezuela, Central America or even further away. Going through it exposes families to violence, kidnappings and extortion from both organized crime and the authorities. A traumatic journey with physical and psychological consequences that are not talked about as much, and which, however, leaves a deep mark.
Millions of girls, boys and adolescents in Latin America are forced to leave their homes every year due to poverty, violence and the effects of climate change in a humanitarian crisis on a regional scale. Five years ago, the majority of people migrating north were young men looking for work. Now, the movement of people has changed and more and more families are leaving their countries in search of better opportunities. Of the more than 828,000 migrants who have crossed Mexico irregularly so far this year—more than double that of 2023—some 97,000 are children and adolescents, according to official data. Many of them emigrate alone.
Desireé was very little when she left Venezuela. In his short seven years of life, he has crossed seven countries on foot until reaching Mexico. She and her mother lived in Peru for a time, but then the family decided to seek asylum in the United States. To get to the north, they had to cross the dangerous Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama. Then, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Upon arriving in Mexico, near Tapachula, her mother says that they were almost kidnapped by organized crime. With hardly any money or contacts, they joined a caravan of people and crossed part of the country on the back of The Beasta freight train on which many migrants have been injured or died trying to board. “The train goes very fast, it has wheels and it is very big,” says Desireé. “My mom paid a man to be able to ride us and when he started it was night and very cold; I almost fell because you can’t catch yourself. The bad thing is that it reaches a point and then leaves you,” says the girl.
The names of the boys and girls in this report have been changed for security reasons, despite having the permission of their families to interview them. Many had to leave their homes because of the violence. Morning Express, with the support of Save the Children, proposes that you draw what you hope your life in the United States will be like. They imagine a house, their family united again, delicious food and many things to play with. “I would like life to be better there, for things to not be so expensive and for money to be enough to buy,” says Desireé. From Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala, to Ciudad Juárez, in front of the wall with the United States, families travel more than 3,000 kilometers just to cross Mexico. Getting there has also become a race against time. The threat of Donald Trump, who aspires to be president of the United States again, has accelerated the pace of thousands of people to request asylum before the elections, on November 5.
Desireé, 7 years old, Venezuela
The origin and age of these children are much more varied than decades ago, reaching historic highs. “We have seen an increase in children from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua and Haiti. They are of all ages, from newborns to teenagers. Those coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have also increased,” explains Ivonne Piedras, Director of Communication and Campaigns at Save the Children Mexico. More and more children migrate and are smaller. Nearly 90%, according to Unicef, are under 11 years old. In 2022, at least 92 of them died or went missing while passing through the region, more than in any year since 2014, although humanitarian organizations estimate the number could be higher. Added to the dangers of the trip are health risks: gastrointestinal diseases, dehydration, malnutrition, foot injuries, dengue and respiratory diseases. As the route progresses, the situation is complicated by the lack of access to medical care.
Marco is 10 years old and lived his entire life in a town in Chiapas, a relatively quiet state until the war broke out between cartels for control of the territory. As a result, thousands of people, including him and his family, had to flee. Between 2008 and 2023, some 392,000 people left their homes as a result of violence in Mexico, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). The country has become a sender, receiver and transit point for migrants, to the point that a third of the people who request asylum in the United States are of Mexican origin.
“I don’t know why we left. Only my mother and my grandmother know. One day they told me that we were going to visit the United States to see my dad and I was very happy,” says Marco. The family has been waiting for eight months for an appointment through the CBP One application, from the United States Customs and Border control, to apply for a humanitarian visa. “When I see my dad, I would like to talk to him and play basketball”says the boy. The number of internally displaced people, including children and adolescents trying to reach the United States, has been increasing exponentially each year since 2020.
Marco, 10 years old, Mexico
Dafne, her sister Andrea and her uncles are also fleeing the violence. They left Guerrero 10 months ago threatened by drug traffickers. “I’m afraid that they will return us,” says the 12-year-old. “We had a fruit store and they asked us to pay a fee or, if not, they were going to kill us or rape us and that is why we came here,” he says. Organized gangs and drug cartels also extort and kidnap migrants as they pass through the country. Many boys and girls say they have been kidnapped and put in “cages” with their parents until they paid money. In addition to extortion and kidnappings, organizations also traffic children for labor or sexual exploitation and use them as mules for drug smuggling. “What surprised me most about the trip is the cruelty of human beings,” says Dafne emphatically. What she has seen and experienced at 12 years old has forced her to grow up too quickly.
His goal now is to reach Florida, where his parents live. On the day of the meeting with this newspaper, she and her family are about to attend the appointment with the immigration authorities in El Paso, Texas. After many months, the process to reunite with his family on the other side finally arrives. “I think that of so many things that have happened to me and that I have experienced, now I have to experience good things. I feel that after suffering there has to be a reward,” he says smiling.
Dafne, 12 years old, Mexico
“For me, the hardest thing was leaving my friends behind and living with so many people.” Roberto is eight years old and arrived from El Salvador to Mexico a few months ago. Now he lives in a shelter and although he has already made new friends, he says he misses his “lifelong” friends. Not everything is bad in his new refuge. He really likes potato balls with cheese that they serve at dinner, playing with other children and tacos. “They have more meat here than in El Salvador,” he says. Although beyond tacos and potato balls, what Roberto likes most is soccer and Lionel Messi. “When I grow up I want to go to Miami and play for Messi’s team or Manchester City,” he says. It is not surprising that during the workshop he just had, he drew the Argentine player.
Sadness is one of the most common emotions among migrant children. Sadness at being far from home, sadness at abandoning the family, sadness at leaving everything they had known until now. “We see many children with psychological, emotional and cognitive damage,” says Piedras. The spectrum is very broad and each person somatizes the trip differently. The organizations try to work with them on emotional support, learning and attention to their rights, thanks to the support of the Humanitarian Aid Consortium, financed by the European Union. The group of organizations is made up of the Danish Refugee Council, Plan International, HIAS Mexico, Save the Children and Doctors of the World. Together they provide care to girls, boys, women survivors of gender violence and the LGTB+ population.
On the wall you can see hundreds of messages and work that they have been doing these months. “I lost a friend, but I gained beautiful memories and a pair of glasses,” one drawing reads. “I lost leaving my country, but I gained getting to a better country,” he says in another. “We see hyperactive boys and girls, very aggressive and angry or, on the contrary, very shy children who do not want to talk, who have nightmares, who urinate at night or who have pain unrelated to a health condition,” adds the specialist. Domestic violence is another of the traumas they go through. “We work with parents to channel emotional relief because we see a lot of aggression and scolding of their children. We also deal with cases of sexual abuse that happen on the road. On other occasions, it is the children who witness the abuse of their mothers or the families are threatened with raping their children if they do not agree to the extortion,” explains Save the Children.
Roberto, 8 years old, El Salvador
Another of the serious problems they face is the educational gap due to the long trip. Many of them, however, dream of having a school or studying a career when they grow up. Emiliano is 13 years old and he is clear that the first thing he will do when he crosses into the United States is to try the famous cookies. Crumbl cookieswith more than six million followers. “I want to be a pastry chef who makes cakes with edible designs,” he says enthusiastically. “I would like to go to school, have a room with LED lights and a big TV.” When asked what is the most important object he carries with him, he does not hesitate: his cell phone. In it he does what any boy his age does: he plays video games, draws and watches videos, although he cannot have social networks “for safety.” Emiliano and his family are also fleeing. “They have told me that in the United States you can play safely, that you can make many friends and that there is no violence,” he says.
Humanitarian organizations urgently reinforce mechanisms and safe routes to protect migrant children and their families. “To the extent that governments prevent these policies and only try to contain migration, children will be forced to migrate through increasingly unsafe routes. As a consequence, we will see more children being violated and experiencing abuse,” says Piedras.
Emiliano, 13 years old, Mexico
At the end of the road, the dreams of migrant boys and girls come face to face with reality. They cross jungles, rivers and deserts, but the horizon is always a little further away. The idea of a life on the other side, however, pushes them to move forward despite everything they carry on their shoulders. “My dream is to be saving with my mother, buy a house and we will live there, while saving more money,” says Roberto. “What I saw of the United States looked very nice,” adds Desireé. “You could see the houses and hotels very high. Although on this side there was a red door with cables and many immigration vans to detain people,” he remembers. She also dreams of a house of her own and one day of being “a painter, a doctor, a basketball player and making pizzas,” her favorite food. He still doesn’t know what his path will be. Maybe when I’m older I can decide.