They’re in Texas, less than a mile north of the US-Mexico border, trying to find their way.
CNN spent the late hours of Wednesday night following a team of Texas deputy agents and watching their meeting with the teens.
This moment when migrants and authorities intersected – and other details we learned on that journey through the wilderness – gave us a glimpse into a rapidly changing situation that sparked fierce political debate in various corners of the country, but is rarely seen. close to most Americans.
The people we met were not engaged in conversations in Washington. But they had a lot to say. This is what we saw and heard from them.
Some are on the run from hurricanes
When a deputy asks where they are from, all seven teens almost simultaneously answer: Guatemala.
They tell CNN that they first met on their long journey north. Some say smugglers helped them along the way. Others say they had no help.
Many of the teens, who CNN identifies by their first name only to protect their safety, are emotional when they talk about the journey that brought them here and what they left behind.
Kevin, 16, starts to cry and says that sometimes he hasn’t had food or drink along the way. He hasn’t seen his father for two years and hopes to reconnect with him in Pennsylvania.
“I’ve been on this path for a month,” he says, wiping his eyes, “and now I’m here.”
All teens say they have family members or acquaintances they hope to reunite with in different parts of the United States – Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, and Idaho. They say they hope to study here and eventually work.
“There is no work,” he says. “There is no money to study.”
Edgar, 17, shares a similar experience. “The house around us has collapsed,” he says. “Thank goodness my mother is still alive.”
He’s making this trip for her, he says, to help her survive.
A Sergeant’s Opinion: ‘We’re Not the Bad Guys’
It’s a scene like a lot of Reserve Sgt. Deputy Agent Dan Broyles has previously been a witness. In his 37 years in law enforcement, many of which have been spent patrolling this part of the border, Broyles knows what happens when migrants first arrive in the United States.
It’s not the deputy sheriff’s job, he says, to determine someone’s fate. When they meet groups here, they accompany them to Border Patrol.
“We’re not the bad guys,” he says. “We just want to make sure they’re safe and get the medical care they need.”
As he drives us down a rugged dirt road that winds along the banks of the Rio Grande, Broyles points to a place where he remembers finding the remains of a man eight years ago.
‘He hurt himself. He was abandoned by a group and died, ”Broyles says, shaking his head. “It is pathetic.”
Crossing the border has always been a dangerous journey. But in recent years, the people who make it have been changing. Many more families and children are coming. And it is difficult for Broyles to see.
As we walk along the Rio Grande with him, Broyles points to diapers on the floor.
“There are one, two, three,” he says. ‘What does that tell you? They bring babies across. As a father I don’t know if I want to help my children through that. ‘
The landscape is dotted with hints that children and families pass through
The diapers aren’t the only signs that kids and families have been here. We also see children’s clothes and small masks lying on the floor.
Documents left by some migrants who passed tell part of their story. A piece of paper we saw in the brush describes a 34-year-old mother from Honduras and her 2-year-old son. The document says they both tested negative for Covid before leaving their country.
There are also other signs here that point to the new reality of the frontier. A handwritten note taped to a tree in a bag that says “Department of Homeland Security” says “ASILO” in block letters, Spanish for “asylum.”
That is the kind of protection that many migrants who cross the border seek. It’s gotten harder to win, but it’s legal to ask for it – which is one of the reasons families and children often look for authorities after crossing the line and turning themselves in.
That’s where Broyles and other deputy agents come in. Tonight it will only take a few minutes to interview all the teenagers.
They then send them along a path and lead them to a Border Patrol processing center under a nearby bridge, which comes into focus as floodlights illuminate it in the distance.
For the teens we met, it’s just another step in an already uncertain journey.
CNN’s Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt told this story in Hidalgo County. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet wrote the story in Arlington, Virginia.