The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life

Coyote is a colloquial Spanish word for someone who smuggles people across the border between the United States and Mexico.

La migra is a Spanish word for immigration authorities, which people from Central and South America use to refer to the United States Border Patrol. The United States Border Patrol is the United States Customs and Border Protection’s federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Border Patrol agents police the United States borders by detecting and preventing illegal aliens, terrorists, and weapons from entering the United States.

The Northern Triangle of Central America is Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The countries are economically integrated, and other countries have trade agreements with The Northern Triangle rather than the countries individually. The three countries in the Northern Triangle have high homicide rates and contribute most heavily to the flow of unaccompanied migrant children into Mexico and the United States.

Deportation is the expulsion from a country. The United States frequently deports undocumented persons to their home countries when discovered.

Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is an international criminal gang. It originated to protect Salvadoran immigrants from gangs in Los Angeles but grew into a criminal organization. The gang proliferated in El Salvador after members were deported. It has since become the most powerful and dangerous gang in El Salvador and has spread to other countries, including a resurgence in the United States.

Barrio 18, the 18th Street Gang, Calle 18, Mara 18, or La 18 is a multiethnic transnational criminal gang, comprised mostly of Central Americas, that originated in Los Angeles. It rivals MS-13 for power across the Americas.

Private Detention Facility Contractors are organizations, typically structured as nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations, that contract with governments to hold individuals, usually who have either committed a crime or are undocumented immigrants. Though organized as nonprofit entities, they are very profitable companies that compensate their executives well. Advocates allege that these companies earn profits by providing inadequate care for their inhabitants. The federal government no longer uses private contractors to hold criminal convicts, but many states do. The federal government uses private contractors to hold undocumented immigrant detainees.

An undocumented, or illegal, immigrant is a person who has migrated into a country in violation of that country’s immigration laws, or someone who has entered a country legally but remained without a legal right to do so.

A green card is a Permanent Resident Card document issued by the United States to immigrants granted legal permission to permanently reside in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The card provides evidence that its bearer is permitted to be in the country. People with green cards are referred to as Lawful Permanent Residents.