Kids also caught entering illegally

Hundreds languish in shelters
By Lourdes Medrano
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

PHOENIX — In House No. 7, teen Diego Moncayo sat pensively in a sunken living room, watching his 18 young roommates make the most of their free time with foosball and checkers.

Thoughts of his impending deportation to Ecuador weigh heavily on Moncayo, 17. He knows the adults around him are planning his departure from the Phoenix shelter where he has stayed since being caught sneaking across the U.S.-Mexican border without his parents or an adult guardian.

"I came a long way for nothing," a somber Moncayo said almost in a whisper as he talked about how he was supposed to join the father he hasn't seen in eight years in New Jersey. "It truly hurts."

Moncayo is one of nearly 1,700 children who passed through the shelter in the last year after foiled attempts to enter the country illegally and on their own. Most come from Central America, but others come from as far away as Brazil, Cuba and Ghana. With few exceptions, minors from Mexico are returned to children's shelters in Mexican border towns.