Freelance Reporter
The burst of media coverage on the surge of unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. in recent years has since ebbed, but the migration continues and many of the children’s basic needs still go unmet.
For unaccompanied minors, seeking out health care is fraught will challenges and fear. Reporter Lucy Guanuna tells the stories of young mothers and children, and their unmet health needs.
“We wanted to see the sun because the lights were on inside all the time. They would wake us up all the time, they wouldn’t let us sleep,” said one unaccompanied minor placed in a Texas detention center. “I wanted to cry. I thought, ‘God why am I here. Why did I come?’”
Media coverage of unaccompanied minors has subsided in the past couple of months, although immigration hearings and deportations continue. Meanwhile, what do we know so far about the quality of health care provided to such minors?
