Homeless Immigrants Alone, Adrift

It would be horrible to be homeless but in a strange country, with limited English and no hope, would be so much worse. - - Donna Poisl

by MERIBAH KNIGHT

One said goodbye, embracing his anxious parents. One left without a word, indignant and angry.

After traveling thousands of miles by bus, train and on foot, the two young men met in a homeless shelter on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

Oscar was a shy 15-year-old when his parents hired a local “coyote” in July 2008 to help him leave Veracruz, Mexico, and cross the border to seek work in the United States. Jorge, gregarious, bright-eyed and also 15, gathered up his 6-year-old cousin six months later and left Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the middle of the night, to escape abuse that he said had escalated into fistfights with his father. He also planned to work and send money back to his mother.

Without knowing it, both were headed toward homelessness. In that, they joined thousands of other immigrant children who have left their native country — for work, family reunification or refuge — crossed into the United States and wound up alone.
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