Imagine being just 16 years old and having to leave your home because the MS-13 gang in El Salvador is terrorizing you daily, not letting you go to school or leave your home. Imagine being 16 and alone, boarding a freight train in Mexico known as the “Death Train” with the hopes of traveling through Mexico and arriving closer to the Mexico/U.S. border. Since you don’t have a ticket, you sit on the roof of the train with other immigrants, risking your life like so many others. Then, around midnight, there is a commotion. Members of a Mexican drug cartel board your train. The men, armed and masked, kidnap you and force you into the trunk of a truck. Blindfolded and tied by the hands, you are taken to an abandoned home. Because you are unable to pay the ransom the men are requesting, they stab you in the hand, lock you in a room, and starve you for one month.
Unfortunately for Carlos (name changed) this nightmare became his reality in early 2013. However, his story did not end there. After the cartel held Carlos captive for one month, they again blindfolded him and put him in the trunk of a truck. After a few hours of driving, Carlos got out and it was dark outside. Other cartel vehicles arrived with people who had been kidnapped. The cartel members forced all of the kidnapping victims, including Carlos, to strap large backpacks to their bodies. The packs weighed 50 pounds each, filled with drugs, food, and water. The armed men tied the boys together and forced them to walk in a line, constantly threatening to kill them if they did not do as they were told.
After nearly two weeks of walking with little food and rest, Carlos was able to escape by running away. Alone in the desert, dehydrated and dizzy, Carlos turned himself in to U.S. immigration authorities at the first chance he got. Since Carlos was an unaccompanied immigrant child, he was transferred to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia. There, CAIR Coalition assisted him in preparing and filing an application for a “T visa,” a pathway to lawful immigration status available to victims of severe human trafficking. Julianne Jacquith and Sabrina Talukder, two volunteer law students from the University of Virginia School of Law, assisted Carlos in preparing a very detailed declaration that outlined his victimization and subsequent cooperation with authorities to share information about his traffickers.
In July, Carlos’s T-visa was approved. Specifically, the immigration authorities determined that because Carlos had been forced to serve as a “drug mule” for a cartel, he met the definition of a victim forced into labor trafficking. CAIR Coalition is particularly proud of this accomplishment, not only for Carlos but for the many children we see who have been kidnapped and forced against their will to work for narcotrafficking cartels. Carlos is now able to focus on making a life for himself in the United States, and will be eligible to apply for his green card in three years.
CAIR Coalition staff regularly encounters young people who seek a safe harbor in the United States. Many are in need of representation. Click here for more information: [https://www.caircoalition.org/category/pro-bono-opportunities/]
