Ginger is living in Detroit while waiting for a ruling on her asylum claim.

Nick Hagen

STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, SL.6-8.1, SL.6-8.2, SL.6-8.5, W.6-8.3, W.6-8.7, W.6-8.8, W.6-8.9, WHST.6-8.1

C3 (D2/6-8): Civ.1, Civ.3, Civ.12, Civ.13, Geo.10, His.2, His.5

NCSS: Global connections; Power, authority, and governance

Enjoy this free article courtesy of Junior Scholastic, the Social Studies classroom magazine for grades 6–8.

JS 360°

Immigration

“They’ll Kill Me If I’m Sent Back”

Ginger fled a violent gang that kidnapped her in Honduras, then crossed illegally into the United States in search of safety. Now the 17-year-old is desperately hoping she can stay.

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

When the opportunity to escape presented itself, Ginger* knew she had to act fast. It might be the last chance she’d ever have. 

A few days earlier, Ginger had been kidnapped in broad daylight while the then-15-year-old was walking home from school in her neighborhood in Honduras.

On that afternoon in November 2017, a woman had approached her asking for help. While Ginger was distracted talking to the woman, a group of men—likely part of a criminal gang or a drug cartel—grabbed her and dragged her away.

They brought her to an abandoned house, where she was held for days with other kidnapped people. Ginger was certain she was going to be killed. So when no one was looking, she jumped through a nearby window and ran as fast as she could.

*Her last name has been withheld for privacy.

Running for Her Life

Ginger didn’t know where she was or where she was going, but she didn’t stop running until she reached a busy intersection. When she encountered a concerned stranger, Ginger’s words came out in a tearful rush as she told the woman what had happened. 

The woman gave Ginger bus money, and the teen made her way back to her home in Tegucigalpa (teh-goo-see-GAHL-puh), the capital of Honduras.

There, her grandfather, who she lived with, had been frantic with worry.

He raced Ginger to the police station to report her kidnapping. But it wasn’t long before they realized that the officers weren’t on their side. In Honduras, police are often corrupt and work with the drug cartels.

Tens of thousands of people are coming to the United States in search of protection from violence at home.

Not only did the police brush off her story, Ginger was afraid they’d return her to the kidnappers if she said too much. There is no justice in my country, she thought as they left the police station.

A few days later, Ginger’s grandfather told her she had to leave Honduras for her own safety. Ginger’s mother had fled the Central American country years earlier after surviving a violent attack of her own. She was now living illegally in Detroit, Michigan. Ginger, her grandfather said, must try to join her.

So in January 2018, just after she turned 16, Ginger said goodbye to the only home she’d known. Then she set out on a dangerous 3,000-mile journey to the United States.

A Desperate Decision

It might be hard to imagine a teen making such a trek alone. After all, many kids in the U.S. have strict curfews set by their parents and are allowed to venture out solo only to certain parts of their towns.

But about 38,000 children from Central America arrived in the U.S. without a parent or guardian in 2018 alone. They’re part of a larger surge of people making the journey to this country from that region.

Many of those arriving in the U.S. say their lives are at risk in their home countries, and some ask to be allowed to stay for that reason. The process for doing so is called seeking asylum, and the number of migrants arriving in the U.S. who are requesting it has soared in recent years (see "The Asylum Crisis" sidebar, below).

But as Ginger learned, getting to the U.S. to ask for asylum can be as dangerous as what migrants like her are trying to escape at home.

Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images

WIDESPREAD CRIME: Police investigate the scene where a man was shot to death while driving in Honduras.

Too Scared to Sleep

Ginger technically wasn’t by herself on her journey from Honduras to the U.S. Her grandfather had hired a human smuggler, commonly known as a coyote, to guide her on the trip.

Over the course of a grueling 22 days, Ginger traveled by bus, by car, and on foot. She had just one small bag that held three pairs of pants and three shirts. The only shoes she had were the ones on her feet. Some days, Ginger walked so far in those shoes she’d get leg cramps painful enough to make her cry. 

At night, she and the coyote often slept outside—even though Ginger didn’t have a jacket. She was often hungry and thirsty because she wasn’t able to carry food or water.

The coyote treated her well, but Ginger lived in a constant state of fear. At night, she hardly slept. There were a lot of other migrants around—including many men—and she was afraid one of them would attack her at night.

After three weeks of travel, Ginger finally arrived at the Rio Grande. That river marks the border between Texas and Mexico. She got into a boat with four other people to cross the river even though she didn’t know how to swim.

They made it across safely, stepping illegally onto U.S. soil without passing through a U.S. Border Patrol station. Ginger walked for several hours before immigration authorities spotted her. Exhausted and terrified, she didn’t run.

John Moore/Getty Images

U.S. ARRIVAL: Central American migrants turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande into Texas.

More Obstacles Ahead

Once in the custody of Border Patrol agents, Ginger was taken to an immigration facility where many other migrants were being held. She slept on the floor that night. 

The following day, Ginger was transferred to a large detention facility in Texas where other children who’d traveled alone from Central America were being held. While there, Ginger began communicating with her mother. Like all the other kids there, she was allowed to make one phone call per week. If the person didn’t answer, they’d have to wait another week before they could try again. Luckily, Ginger’s mother always picked up.

After two months at the detention facility, Ginger was released to her mother in April 2018.

Second Chances? 

A week after being reunited with her mother, Ginger enrolled in a Detroit high school. It was lonely at first because she didn’t speak English and she couldn’t talk to anyone. But after a few days, some students who spoke Spanish befriended her. Along with her new teachers, they’ve started helping her learn English. Things have been getting better since.

Not long after Ginger arrived in Detroit, her mother’s boyfriend heard about a local lawyer who helps undocumented migrants apply for asylum in the U.S. After hearing Ginger’s story, the lawyer agreed to take her case. 

With her lawyer’s help, Ginger’s application for asylum has been filed. It could take up to three years for the government to rule on her case. While her claim is being considered, Ginger can’t be deported. But if she’s denied asylum, she’ll likely be sent back to Honduras. 

Ginger, now 17, knows that some Americans feel hostility toward immigrants like her who’ve entered the U.S. illegally. She wants people to know that she came here because of the injustices in her country. In the U.S., she believes, kids don’t have to be afraid.

If she’s allowed to stay, Ginger hopes to become a psychologist. She wants to help other people heal from traumatic experiences—the way she’s healing now.

Despite the uncertainties she faces, Ginger knows in her heart that it was worth risking her life to come to the U.S. Here, she finally feels safe. 

Write About It! How might Ginger have felt during her journey? Describe the experience from her viewpoint in a journal entry.

Who Is Receiving Asylum?

This map shows the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants who were granted asylum in the United States from October 2015 to September 2016. The numbers in red indicate how many people from each country received asylum.

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

MAP SKILLS

1. People from which country received the most grants of asylum from 2015 to 2016?

2. That country has coastline along which ocean?

3. How many people from Mexico got asylum?  

4. In which direction would you have to travel to get from Ethiopia to Nepal? 

5. According to the map, which country has one of the highest murder rates in the world?

6. What happened in Syria in 2011? 

7. Which country had about twice as many people receive asylum as Syria? 

8. How many people from Egypt received asylum?

9. Which labeled country on the map is closest to the equator?

10. Which is greater: the number of people from China granted asylum or the number of people granted asylum from the three labeled Central American countries combined?

YOU MIGHT NEED TO KNOW...

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Central American migrants walk across the Guatemalan border into Mexico.

MIGRANT Someone who moves from one country to another for any reason. The move could be temporary or permanent.

IMMIGRANT Someone who comes to live in a new country with the intention of staying permanently. There are both legal and undocumented immigrants.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS These are people who come to another country because they fear persecution or violence at home. Refugees apply to come to the U.S. from abroad and are screened before arriving. People seeking asylum apply for protection at the border or once they’re already in the U.S.

Meet a Changemaker

Courtesy of Erick Reyna

“I work to free asylum seekers from detention.”

Jacob Castillo, 19, of San Francisco, California, helped a teen asylum seeker get out of a detention center and back into school. 

Many of my friends have relatives who came to the U.S. seeking asylum, some as undocumented immigrants. Too often, I would hear about their loved ones being arrested. 

I took an immigration class at my high school, June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco. My friends and I loved it so much that we turned it into a club. We attended court hearings to support asylum seekers. 

Last spring, we heard about Hamid,* a teen from Afghanistan who came to the U.S. seeking asylum. He had fled after militant groups killed his father and brother. He believed he was 16 or 17—but didn’t have a birth certificate to prove it. When Hamid first reached the U.S., officials treated him as a minor. But after examining his teeth, they decided he might be 18 and moved him into an adult detention center for months. My friends and I knew we had to help.

CONTACTING OUR SENATOR
We wrote a letter to one of our U.S. senators, Kamala Harris, pleading for her assistance. Students at nearly every school in San Francisco signed it. The petition convinced Harris’s staff to meet with us. That helped raise awareness. 

We also traveled five hours to the detention center. It felt like a jail. We got to see Hamid for 15 minutes. Through a translator, he told us he was scared. He was in tears. He had no contact with his family. Often, he ate only bread. Most of the food served there was forbidden by his faith.  

Hamid should have been in school like us, not locked away like a criminal. That made me even more determined to help him. 

FREEING HAMID
We made a video to raise money for Hamid’s $35,000 bail. Donations poured in from across the country. After many weeks, we had enough. 

The day after Hamid got out, we met him at a park. We wanted him to see what life is like here. Even though we didn’t have a translator, we understood each other without words.

MY MISSION
I still keep in touch with Hamid. Today, he is attending a U.S. school while his asylum case is being decided. My work isn’t done, though. I hear about kids crying because their immigrant parents got detained. I’m going to help them too.

by Jacob Castillo, as told to Laura Anastasia

*His name has been changed for privacy. 

Understanding ...

The Asylum Crisis

In 2018, nearly 100,000 people asked the United States for asylum. That’s about twice the number of asylum claims that were filed in 2017. Most of the asylum seekers were from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. 

Those countries suffer from severe poverty and extreme violence from gangs and drug cartels. When people from those countries reach the U.S.-Mexico border, some cross over illegally and later file for asylum. Others go straight to U.S. Border Patrol stations and ask for help.

2,000%
Estimated percentage by which the number of people seeking asylum in the U.S. has increased in the past decade.

SOURCE: Time

Americans are divided over what to do about the surge in asylum applications. Many people sympathize with the migrants and are in favor of helping them. But others, including U.S. President Donald Trump, say that the asylum system is being abused. They argue that some people do not qualify for asylum protection, but because they know the right things to say, they’re allowed to stay in the country while their cases are processed. (This can take years.)

The debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon, but experts on both sides tend to agree that the U.S. asylum system is out of date and needs to be overhauled.

How YOU Can Help

Asylum seekers and refugees are often lonely in a new country. They may still be processing trauma they survived in their home nations while missing family and friends they left behind. Experts say the most important thing you can do for these people is to be kind.

At school, that could mean inviting new immigrant students to sit with you in the cafeteria. You could also offer to help them practice English if they don’t know the language.

In your community, you and your parents could invite the new refugee family on your street to a neighborhood block party, or offer to help them with rides to the grocery store. Even just smiling and saying hello can go a long way.

Like what you see? Then you'll love Junior Scholastic, our Social Studies classroom magazine for grades 6–8.

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