In 2023, over 9,429 people on the move came to the Migrant Outreach Center. More than a third of them, or about 36%, were under the age of 18. Among those children, the bulk of them were barely two. Many of them have taken their first steps in migration, fleeing for protection or opportunity.
Anyone who has journeyed with KBI knows that this reality marks a profound shift from when we began in 2009, when we primarily served men and father’s who had been deported back to Mexico. Our facilities and approach were largely built around adults. Yet as we deepen our commitment to holistic accompaniment, radical hospitality, and human dignity, we know that means we must grow our capacity to meet people where they are in life – even at its earliest stages.
In today’s feature, we invite you to explore the ways that KBI is working to offer more child-centered accompaniment – both within our walls and through our extended network of relationships in Nogales and the US.
A word about children in migration
Over the past decade, an increasing number of families have been fleeing their homes to seek asylum. Over the same period, the proportion of people who say they’re fleeing violence has ballooned. In KBI’s 2023 report, we noted that 83.47% of people arriving at KBI cited violence as their primary motivation for leaving their homes.
In light of these shifting conditions, it’s no wonder that many parents have opted to seek safety with their children. “My children deserve to be in a safe place, they deserve to be well. They are children and deserve to stay that way,” said Lucero, a mother of two who we feature in today’s newsletter. Parents, like all of us at KBI, believe that their children should have the chance to live in safety, security, and with opportunity for their future.
“My reason for seeking security was out of love for my children so that they continue living life. They gave me the courage to leave. I had faith in God to help me. They are young and need to live their lives,” said María.
The choices that parents face have gotten even more dire in the wake of the Biden Administration’s Executive Order. Families who may have qualified for the asylum process now face weeks or even months-long waits in Nogales, living in prolonged limbo without the resources to prioritize their children’s development. Current policies restricting access to asylum to all except kids traveling without a guardian (unaccompanied minors). This tiny sliver of access to asylum has led some parents to face the unthinkable: sending their kids alone in the hope that they can access safety, even if it means without them.
Holistic Accompaniment and Dignity for Children on the Move
For children, every moment is formative and important. Many fled their homes due to traumatic experiences. Then, experiences in migration can re-traumatize them even further.
The American Academy of Pediatrics visited a US Customs and Border Patrol Facility in Tucson, where many families are taken to be processed after crossing the border.
“‘There’s nothing child-centered or family-centered or kid-friendly about it,’ [AAP President Dr. Benjamin D. Hoffman] said of the intake process. ‘The kids have all experienced phenomenal amounts of trauma. How can this be done in a more trauma-informed way and a more humane way? The thing that repeatedly hit home is these are people. These are people who have been traveling for weeks and months, and it needs to be about acknowledging that they’ve already been through a lot and not exacerbating that.’
While children do receive care at the facility, Dr. Hoffman said exams typically are ‘cursory’ and can miss significant health issues. A greater focus on the unique needs of kids would be beneficial.
‘There are kids with special health needs there and kids who have been born on the way there who really haven’t had medical assessments,’” he said.
KBI’s own case management and local outreach efforts have confirmed that young children are an overlooked population when it comes to available services. There is currently no other space in Nogales for children ages 0-5. The AAP recommended that places who interact with children on the move, including KBI, create spaces that feel smaller and more homey when dealing with children. To further promote child health, the AAP recommended that children get to go to school, have access to trauma-informed healthcare, and space to play. When it comes to showing children radical hospitality, medical care, education, play, and remaining with family in friendly spaces all intertwine.
This is one of the reasons why KBI has prioritized creating more holistic child-centric spaces and experiences for kids on the move. As a guide, KBI has looked to our Jesuit tradition as well as internationally-recognized standards such as the children’s bill of rights. This UN document insists that every child has the right to “grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding,” to a name and nationality, adequate nutrition, shelter, and healthcare, spaces of play, and protection against cruelty, neglect, and exploitation.
Promoting education and wellbeing in Nogales
We know that making sure children on the move can experience health and dignity on the journey means making sure they can connect into the Nogales, Sonora community. Partners in Nogales have made an incredible difference here. In 2022, social worker Bernadette “Bernie” Eguia connected with the local preschool “Jardin de Niños Senderos” or Kindergarten Pathways, who agreed to welcome children younger than 5 years of age regardless of their nationality. We have been thrilled to see dozens of children on the move attend the school over the years. “A huge plus is that the school is a three minute walk from KBI,” says Bernie. “It gives them a small sense of independence and belonging in Nogales, as well as a sense of possibility for their future. Even if it’s just one or two months that they attend, it’s critical that they’re getting that chance to learn and make friends.”
While not a formal partnership, Bernie also notes that many primary schools in Nogales have been creating pathways for children on the move to attend. She says, “Some have been lowering their tuition so that people can afford to go, or simply allowing parents to enroll their children directly.”
Creating Child – Centric Space and Initiatives at KBI
To uphold the dignity of children on the move and their overall health, KBI has focused on creating child-centric spaces in the Migrant Outreach Center, forging partnerships for local hospitality in Nogales, Sonora, and promoting migrant integration through our networks in the US.
It’s easy to see the fruit of these efforts inside the Migrant Outreach Center if you know what to look for. “The team started thinking about what being at KBI was like from a child’s eyes,” says Director of Education and Advocacy Pedro De Velasco. “It helped us to see some parts that were scary or intimidating, even if we didn’t mean it to be.”
Of course, some of these pieces are obvious, like making sure children arriving at our clinic are met with trauma-informed staff who know how to offer children medical care in a comforting way. Another of the pieces that came to light was that the way KBI conducted initial surveys had to change. Typically, the team would sit down with an adult and ask them a series of questions to understand their background, needs, and migration journey. Until recently, their children would be next to them, hearing the whole thing.
“We realized that it would be better if children had their own space to play, within eyesight but not earshot, from their parents while we did this,” says Bernie The KBI team set aside a small office close to the survey area and made it a children’s playroom, painting it with soft white clouds and stocking it with toys and snacks. Now, a KBI staff worker stays with the children while their parents complete the survey with another staff member. Bernie says, “The parents can speak much more freely now. They can say the truth without worrying about terrifying or hurting their child.”
This small step takes out one way children can experience trauma while in migration. Another is in the form of a library stocked with books specifically curated for children. Many of the 300+ books were selected by KBI’s Psychosocial team to help children process trauma.
Even as the library was being created, it was already making children feel more comfortable. When Marco saw the furniture getting moved into it and found out what it was, he exclaimed, “That sounds great! I’ve never been to a library. I wonder what it’s like.”
Through spaces like these, KBI is making sure children on the move have spaces for them and where they can explore. Thanks to partnerships with organizations like Save the Children and Border Youth Tennis Exchange (BYTE) currently coming to Kino each week, we are expanding these opportunities even more. Save the Children offer an education in emergency curriculum design for the children and adolescents children of migrants. BYTE is a binational youth development organization that provides athletic and tech-based academic instruction to children on both sides of the US/Mexico border. In our partnership, they have offered spaces of learning through movement and play! They have offered yoga classes, dance classes, and lots of other opportunities for creative movement.
“Our goal is for children to feel at home while they’re at KBI. We realized that most of our programs and spaces had been created for adults, and that we needed to evaluate and make adjustments if we wanted to accompany children well,” Pedro says.
Bernie says these changes are just the beginning. In the fall, the KBI team is hoping to create a sort of children’s olympics event at the Migrant Outreach Center. “We have a lot of intentions to make a lot of the spaces much more accessible and friendly for children,” she grins.
Parents have been noticing the impact on their children, too. “Our welcome at Kino has been so warm. It helped us forget our problems,” Maria says. “The kids have had so much fun, they’ve gone to classes, they’ve played. They love everything here.”
What’s Next: Migration Integration in the US and Keeping Families together
While we are proud of the strides we’ve taken at KBI and alongside partners in Nogales, we know that much work remains to uphold the dignity of children on the move.
First and foremost, KBI is actively working with partners in the US to make sure that every child can be integrated successfully into the US. This means making sure that families land in a place where they have a community, can participate in and strengthen a support network, and access the support services they need. This is easier said than done for some. “A lot of on-ramps exist for young children,” remarks Executive Director Joanna Williams, “But it can be a lot harder for older children and especially teenagers. We are in conversations with our partners among Jesuit schools about what it could look like to accompany these older children more holistically.”
Sr. Eileen McKenzie, who serves as KBI Mobilization Coordinator, points to relationships built on-site at KBI as a crucial start. “Youth in immersion groups connect with other youth while they’re here at the shelter. It’s a place of mutual exchange where relationships are built even in the absence of language skills. As we equip US communities to welcome people on the move who have crossed, we want to see that translate into accompaniment and integration in the US,” she explains. Sr. Eileen is also connecting with groups who already serve older children in the US, such as Bethany House of Hospitality in Chicago. This group focuses on hospitality for young women who migrated as unaccompanied minors and then age out of the system, often with no support. “We are actively building these networks and starting these critical conversations,” Sr. Eileen says, noting that it is steady, slow work that will bear fruit over the coming months and years.
One concern is more immediate: making sure that children can reach safety with their families in the first place. As previously noted, the Biden Administration’s new policies have put the asylum process out of reach for thousands of people in need of protection. Hundreds of families are being summarily deported to Nogales, Sonora each day, often without any sort of credible fear screening at all.
“You’re sending people back to danger,” says Pedro. “Organizations like KBI are doing the best we can to receive people with the resources we have. We want to – we have the experience and the will. But the reality is that the policy must change. Children will continue to be traumatized if they are kept in danger, pushed back into repatriation centers with a heat index of over 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and worst of all – if they’re separated from their families. We cannot undo the harm that children are facing without real, meaningful restoration to asylum access.”
Your support can drive child-centric policies and spaces.
As we continue to create child-centric spaces and opportunities, we call on Administrations on both sides of the border to do their part. It’s time for officials and politicians to make child-centric policies that ensure that every child can have a sweet and hopeful childhood, whether they are in migration or not.
Your voice and action makes a difference for children in migration. When you call your representative or donate to KBI, you are ensuring that everyone, even children, can migrate with dignity and have access to spaces that promote their flourishing.
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