Here is one version of the story of immigrants running from gangs and poverty in South America - see articles set forth below.
PS - I am watching a pseudo-documentary of a boy's flight from a gang in South America as well - see TV movie title "Icebox." It got a 100% from Rotten Tomatoes.
"ICEBOX tells the story of Óscar, played by Anthony Gonzalez ("Coco"), a 12-year-old Honduran boy who is forced to flee his home and seek asylum in the United States, only to find himself trapped in the U.S. immigration system."
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/icebox
From "The New Yorker" The Sunday Archive.
"The Journey
This week, as the Trump Administration’s self-created border-wall crisis continues, we’re bringing you a collection of pieces about the perilous journeys undertaken by migrants around the world. From the U.S.-Mexico border, Sarah Stillman reports on the kidnappers, gangsters, and other extortionists who prey on those who attempt to cross; in upstate New York, Jake Halpern enters a safe house from which refugees try to enter Canada. In “Ten Borders,” Nicholas Schmidle explains how a Syrian law student made it to Sweden carrying only “four shirts, a pair of pants, and a black scarf knitted by his wife”; in “We Have No Choice,” Ben Taub tells the harrowing story of a teen-age girl’s trek from Nigeria to Italy. Lauren Collins meets an Afghan boy who is lost in Europe’s maze of camps and detention centers. Finally, Alexis Okeowo chronicles a mass defection by the Eritrean national soccer team. These stories capture the reality of migration in all of its historical, political, and human detail.
—David Remnick"
"The Underground Railroad for Refugees"
At a safe house in Buffalo, asylum seekers from around the world prepare to flee the U.S. for Canada.
By Jake Halpern Letter from Buffalo March 13, 2017 Issue
"Ten Borders"
One refugee’s epic escape from Syria.
By Nicholas Schmidle A Reporter at Large October 26, 2015 Issue
"One can choose to become a refugee, but to be smuggled is to be at the mercy of others. "
"Europe’s Child-Refugee Crisis"
At an age when most kids need supervision to do their homework, hundreds of thousands of minors are crossing continents alone.
By Lauren Collins A Reporter at Large February 27, 2017 Issue
"Where Are the Children?"
For extortionists, undocumented migrants have become big business.
By Sarah Stillman A Reporter at Large April 27, 2015 Issue
"The kidnapper sounded polite, even deferential, when she called on a Tuesday afternoon last May. Melida Lemus and Alfredo Godoy had left their clapboard house in Trenton, New Jersey, to pick up their two daughters from school. Godoy, who works in construction, was late to meet a client for whom he was building a home.
