Unaccompanied minors are moving to Connecticut in record numbers

By Kathleen Megan

For several long hours, Francisco, then 15, sat on the bank of the Rio Grande River in Mexico trying to work up the courage to cross it. On the other side of the river was the United States, and the promise of seeing his mother in Connecticut.

It was September 2018, and Francisco watched as others made the crossing — but he couldn’t bring himself to join them. The year before, he watched helplessly as his older brother drowned, pulled under by the current in another river in their home country of Guatemala.