Content area
Full Text
In March 2021, the Administration for Children and Family Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, sent out a request for federal employee volunteers to work with migrant children in facilities along the Southwest U.S. border. I participated in this mission with a strong desire to help reunite these children with their families in the U.S. Often fleeing violence in their home countries, the children had undertaken difficult and very hazardous journeys traveling through Mexico to the U.S. They arrived as strangers in a strange land, ranging from four to 17 years of age.
These children joined a larger, growing, and important demographic. Approximately 45 million—or 14% of the current U.S. population—are immigrants according to the PEW research organization.1 About one million immigrants arrive in the U.S. each year. One in six U.S. workers is an immigrant, making up a vital part of the country's labor force in a range of industries.
Migration can be life-changing and lifesaving, but it also can be perilous. Migrants encounter numerous risks to their health and increased barriers to care before, during, and after migration.
Thousands of migrants all over the world including Afghanistan and Ukraine are desperate for work and are fleeing from oppression, poverty, national disasters caused by climate change (hurricanes, tsunamis, drought), violence and war every day. They risk their lives for a better life filled with hope, safety, shelter, health care, and a future for their children.
The children that I met and helped as part of my time on the border spoke Spanish and were mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Most of the children bonded well with each other and were grateful to have clean clothing, three...