Researcher Elizabeth Kennedy interviewed a 12-year-old boy who returned to El Salvador barefoot; he had been robbed of everything he owned.
"I asked him if he was going to try again," says Kennedy, "and he just burst into tears and said, 'What would you do if you were me? I haven't seen my mom or my dad in 10 years ... and no one here loves me.'"
Since October, a staggering 57,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been apprehended at the southwestern U.S. border. Sometimes, they’ve been welcomed into the country by activists; other times they’ve been turned away by protesters.
Mas…NPR: Who are the refugee kids at the border? (audio, video)