Immigrant Children at Risk
How our hospitals play an integral role in their safety and healing
Juan was 14 when he fled abuse in Guatemala. He’d left school because his father forced him to spend long days laboring in the fields. A local gang was targeting him for recruitment. Verbal abuse from gang members had escalated into physical assaults and death threats.
Juan – whose name has been changed to protect his privacy – felt he had no other choice but to make the dangerous, 1,200-mile journey to the US. Once here, he was advised to apply for asylum. Juan was referred to legal services, which scheduled a forensic exam at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland to document the physical and psychological manifestations of abuse – crucial evidence to present with his asylum application.
