Tell Me How It Ends

The slang term for a common method of travel for child migrants fleeing their home countries: the tops of train cars. It is a highly dangerous and sometimes fatal method of travel that demonstrates the desperation the children face.

The slang term for a person who is paid to smuggle people across the border into the United States. Since their business is inherently dangerous and illegal, there is little recourse or responsibility for them to take good care of their charges.

A term for the detention facilities holding undocumented migrant children, named for both their organizational affiliation (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE) and for the fact that they are kept at a low temperature and subject their prisoners to inhumane treatment.

The Mara Salvatrucha 13 (commonly MS-13) is a transnational gang organization with heavy ties to the South American drug trade. However, it was started in Los Angeles by El Salvadoran refugees fleeing the Salvadoran Civil War of 1979-1992. The essay articulates the global rise of MS-13 (and its omnipresence throughout the Americas) as a problem caused in part by American foreign policy. Manu, one of the key children Luiselli interviews in the essay, is a victim of violence from this organization and Barrio 18.

A priority docket is sometimes established to move court cases quickly through the system; in the case of the migrant crisis, the Obama administration established one to address the number of children caught up in the legal system. However, this meant that timelines were vastly reduced, and children who previously had up to a year to find representation and build a case had 21 days.

A program established between the Mexican and American governments that encouraged enforcement of border policy along the Southern Mexican border, effectively attempting to move the problem of the child migrant crisis from American soil to Mexican soil.

SIJs are undocumented migrants who face abuse, neglect, or other harm on return to their home countries. An undocumented child migrant child can file for this status or asylum, and this status is seen as more desirable in a court filing as it is easier to prove and does not require proof of persecution.

The terminology Luiselli uses to refer to her interviewees throughout (though sometimes she uses the more specific “refugee”), this is a deliberate departure from other terminology like “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien,” designed to be both more precise and more humane in its depiction of children fleeing violence.

A special visa granting a pathway to permanent residence/citizenship for undocumented migrants who are victims of a crime and cooperate with law enforcement. These visas may be granted if persons have experienced substantial mental or physical abuse while in the United States, but seeking one means being exposed to deportation.