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This week’s episode: An adolescence, seized ([link removed])

A 10-year-old Honduran girl came to the United States seeking asylum. Instead, she was detained – away from her family – for nearly seven years.
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Illustration by Molly Mendoza


** Tracking down migrant children trapped in US custody
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Reveal immigration reporter Aura Bogado ([link removed]) came across a scrap of information last year: A girl from Honduras had been in U.S. immigration custody for nearly seven years, longer than any case she’d ever heard before. The girl spent ages 10 to 17 in various shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. On this week’s radio show ([link removed]) , Aura does what the government didn’t: She tracks down the girl’s family members, who have been desperately trying to figure out what happened to her.

As a part of Aura’s reporting, Reveal sued the U.S. government to get data on how long children have been held in immigration custody. The mountain of data showed that nearly 1,000 children have spent more than a year in shelters.

This week, we talked to Aura about what it felt like to talk with the girl and her family and to uncover the huge number of kids who have been separated from their families for weeks, months or years.

How did you start reporting this story?

I heard about this girl who had spent a good chunk of her childhood bouncing between shelters after being separated from her family. I had the first name of a family member who I tried to track down originally in Honduras, then in Mexico and finally in the United States – it turned out that she was in North Carolina. It was an aunt, and she was very shocked and happy to hear from me. She wanted to know what was happening. I had more information about the little girl she raised than she had herself.

What was the family's reaction when you told them that this girl was still in U.S. custody?

I would say it was very emotional for them. There was a lot of shock and relief. The family literally did not know whether or not the girl was still alive – they had no way of knowing. So the confirmation that she was, indeed, alive – regardless of how she was being kept or what had happened to her – created a sense of relief for them. And then, there was also grief at just knowing she'd been shuttered around to so many different places.

What's your perception of how this girl wound up spending more than six years in custody?

Ultimately, the responsibility to care for this girl was with the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement. That is the agency whose custody she was in that whole time. That is the agency that inexplicably lost communication with her family. And that is ultimately the agency that is responsible for institutionalizing her during her adolescence.

One of the new pieces of information in this story is the data showing that nearly 1,000 kids spent more than a year in custody. How did it feel for you when you learned that number?

I'll tell you, even after having worked on the radio story and having that number out there, it's still shocking. It should remain a shock to the conscience. Each and every single one of those kids is a life. And for an agency that's tasked with reuniting kids with family members or placing them in an appropriate foster home kind of setting, all of those kids represent failure of the system. It would be inexcusable for this to be the case for one or two kids. But we're talking about hundreds of kids. I think that says something about the system overall.

One of the most moving parts of this radio story was when you're actually able to get in contact with the girl – she has now been deported to Honduras. How did it feel for you to actually talk to this girl after reporting on her story for almost a year?

I was really anxious. I’d only ever had one very brief interaction with her, but I had heard so much about her. There was a part of me that almost doubted myself, like, “Am I going to be able to get this right? What am I going to talk to her about?” And then in the same breath being, like, “Oh, I know exactly what I want to talk to her about.” I had some fear, like, who knows, she might be really mad at me. She might not remember me. But she was very funny. She's an easy kid to talk to. She was pretty open. I'm just grateful that after so much time, I was actually able to get in touch with her.

What is the heart of this story that you want readers and listeners to think about?

I'm going to give you two answers.

One is, think about everything that you went through during ages 10 to 17. Think about the way that you pushed boundaries. Think about all of the things that you learned. How did you figure out your locker combination? How did you know when it was or wasn't safe to be outside on the street? How did you navigate your risks? Did you learn how to cook or not? So for that entire time, she was institutionalized. For all the times that she was in shelters, all of the meals are cooked for you. You are not allowed to show affection, so she didn't get a hug. She just didn't learn those kinds of basic life skills as a consequence of being institutionalized. For nothing.

That’s the other thing: She was sentenced to be in detention. When you go into a shelter, it is supposed to be a temporary kind of fix – it's a step toward something else. But she stayed there at a time of crucial development. More than 25,000 children have spent 100 days or longer in this kind of detention, and they’re not being punished for anything; they haven't been ordered there. This is supposed to be a quick step from fleeing a very violent country into being reunited with your family. DHHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) is responsible for this. We're the taxpayers who fund it. It's not like it's just, like, magic money falling out of the sky. Society as a whole is allowing this to happen to these children.

Listen to the story: An Adolescence, Seized ([link removed])

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Molly Mendoza in her studio. Photo by Celeste Noche.


** In the Field
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Meet Illustrator Molly Mendoza

Artist Molly Mendoza ([link removed]) drew the powerful image for this week’s radio show (seen above) and will illustrate all new Reveal episodes for the rest of 2020. Based in Portland, Oregon, Molly works on a variety of projects, from painting murals ([link removed]) to illustrating children’s books ([link removed]) . Her evocative art style combines elements of a story with an emotional intensity that creates a clear mood. “Each time I take on a piece, there is a new challenge of communicating its heart in the best way that I can,” Molly says. “I personally believe that I have succeeded when the emotion and tone come through loud and clear, when the text and image become married and the reader understands it but feels it, too.”
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** Reveal Recommends
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Fernando Arruda is a sound designer, engineer and composer who works with lead sound designer Jim Briggs to make each episode of Reveal a unique auditory experience. He describes his job in just one word: “soundbending.”

Listening:
Amon Tobin's “Long Stories ([link removed]) ” album. It is not predictable, it demands active listening, and it takes me to places I want to be at.

Reading:
“The Highly Sensitive Person ([link removed]) ” by Elaine Aron. It reveals to me another beautiful way of being.

Watching:
The movie “Lucky Grandma ([link removed]) .” Despite herself, she gets truly lucky and this “lasting luck” redefines the title of the film in an interesting way.

You can listen to Fernando’s music and learn about his many projects at his personal site ([link removed]) .
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Do you have feedback for Reveal? Send it over! This newsletter was written by Sarah Mirk (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Weekly%20Reveal%20feedback) , who will share your thoughts with the team.
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