At the time of writing this, hundreds of people are trying to enter the U.S. daily. Holding centers are well exceeding capacity, and cities near the border struggle to provide resources for the influx of refugees. Laws continuously change, and yet little, if anything, seems to be done to improve the lives of those held in custody. Even the deaths of several children while in these holding facilities hasn’t (to my knowledge) resulted in any progressive change in the situation. Newspapers report that it costs over seven hundred dollars per person, per day, to house the youths in immigration centers, and the government claims there’s not enough funding to provide better living conditions. Wherever all this money goes, it’s not benefiting any immigrant or refugee.
Even though Santiago’s story is a work of fiction, as is the facility where he’s detained, most of his experiences are true to past and current immigration hardships. They were taken from various accounts of youths and adults held at both temporary and long-term facilities throughout the country. A lot of children who are currently entering the U.S. are kept in far worse conditions than Santiago faced: often denied access to sufficient and clean water and food, crammed together in large “cages,” and don’t provide toothbrushes and soap or medical attention. Providing education, which a few years ago had been obligatory, has almost completely vanished from centers, and yet the government expects the youths to learn English.
Some children are still being taken from their parents; a lawyer friend really did deliver breast milk for a baby separated from her mother. Belts and shoelaces are removed from the detainees, along with anything else perceived as dangerous, leaving them worse off than they were before their arrival. A lot of youths entering the U.S. today turn themselves in at the border as they seek asylum, while others still try to enter the country illegally.
Due to the remoteness, some people attempt to cross the desert border running through New Mexico, Arizona, and California, not realizing the natural challenges they must endure. In an ideal world a person would have one to two gallons of water per day of desert crossing—a very heavy task, considering how much water weighs. There are accounts of people dying only a few hours after their vehicle left them stranded. Likewise, there are reports of people surviving four to five days of intense desert temperatures reaching well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and having run out of water days before. Sometimes helpful citizens will leave bottles of water under a bush for immigrants to drink, while others deliberately destroy the water supply to prevent immigration. Unfortunately, hundreds of people die each year trying to cross the desert, and there are many more whose remains are never found. Despite the extreme hardships people go through to immigrate to the U.S., and then the further hardships faced once here, thousands of youths risk everything to live here. Severe gang violence in their hometowns has them running literally for their lives. For others, poverty is a factor leading to immigration. For example, the current daily wage in Mexico is about five U.S. dollars (https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2018/12/mexico-to-increase-minimum-wage-for-2019). Several children, like Santiago, are also escaping abusive relatives. The emotional impact of this book made it a challenge to write. It’s heart-wrenching to learn what extremes refugees are forced into when they attempt to reach safety or seek asylum. But at the same time, I knew I had to write Santiago’s story. Without awareness, nothing changes. Here’s the awareness, now let’s bring forth the change.
—A. D.