To read the entire article, “Menaced by gangs, El Salvador’s children are running for their lives,” here is the link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/menaced-by-gangs-el-salvadors-children-are-running-for-their-lives/article26151568/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links.

‘At that point, much in his fate would depend on whether the family could take on even more debt to get a lawyer: Non-citizens have no right to state-provided counsel in the United States. Elizabeth Kennedy, a Fulbright scholar who studies the issue of child migrants from Central America, describes cases of unilingual Spanish-speaking six-year-olds “representing” themselves in court cases. A Syracuse University monitoring project found that 47 per cent of children with counsel are able to stay in the U.S. – but 90 per cent of those with no lawyer are forced to leave.

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No one tracks the well-being of the children who reach the U.S., and no one monitors what happens to the ones who are brought back into El Salvador. “No one follows up with these kids – because they don’t want to know,” Ms. Kennedy says.

Anecdotally, she tries to follow some of the hundreds of children she has interviewed. “There are deportees who’ve been sent back and been murdered within hours or within days. And no one is tracking those.”

In June, 2014, the Obama administration requested $3.7-billion (U.S.) in new spending on immigration to address the surge, but Congress has yet to release much of it; most of what has been spent has gone into enforcement measures. There have been no significant policy changes that reflect the dramatic shift in push factors. Yet, deportation is no longer a deterrent. “It’s not uncommon for the deported to turn around and leave again the same day,” says Ms. Kennedy. “You can’t stay.”’