georgephillip
Diamond Member
"In a doorless desert safe house in northwestern Mexico, the drug traffickers sized up the boy—17 years old, 1,700 miles from home, gay, alone—and asked if he was too scared to strap on a load of marijuana and walk across the border into Arizona.
"The kid—I’ll call him Adrián—paused to consider his options. He didn’t have any. Okay, he told them. He’d do it.
"HeÂ’d grown up mostly on the streets in Guatemala City, his abusive father a crack addict and his mother everywhere but around, leaving him with a thin, green-eyed prostitute friend who would sometimes have sex with johns right there next to him.
"HeÂ’d seen robberies, stabbings, shootings; heÂ’d never once set foot in a classroom.
"Eventually he started making a little money selling clothes and makeup in the cityÂ’s colonial district. It wasnÂ’t much, but even so the Barrio 18 street gang took notice and started asking for a cut.
"When Adrián didn’t budge, they pockmarked his tiny stall with bullets.
"It was time to leave."
70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. | The Young Center
"The kid—I’ll call him Adrián—paused to consider his options. He didn’t have any. Okay, he told them. He’d do it.
"HeÂ’d grown up mostly on the streets in Guatemala City, his abusive father a crack addict and his mother everywhere but around, leaving him with a thin, green-eyed prostitute friend who would sometimes have sex with johns right there next to him.
"HeÂ’d seen robberies, stabbings, shootings; heÂ’d never once set foot in a classroom.
"Eventually he started making a little money selling clothes and makeup in the cityÂ’s colonial district. It wasnÂ’t much, but even so the Barrio 18 street gang took notice and started asking for a cut.
"When Adrián didn’t budge, they pockmarked his tiny stall with bullets.
"It was time to leave."
70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. | The Young Center