They are in Texas, less than a kilometer north of the United States’ border with Mexico, trying to find their way.
CNN spent the last hours of Wednesday night following a team of Texas police officers and attending the meeting with the teenagers.
This moment when migrants and authorities met – and other details that we learned on that journey to the desert – gave us a window into a rapidly changing situation that is generating an intense political debate in different corners of the country, but it is rarely seen close to most Americans.
The people we know were not concerned with any conversation in Washington. But they had a lot to say. Here’s what we saw and heard from them.
Some are fleeing hurricanes
When a delegate asks where they are from, all seven teenagers respond almost in unison: Guatemala.
They tell CNN that they met for the first time on their long journey north. Some say that smugglers helped them along the way. Others say they have had no help.
Many of the teenagers, whom CNN identifies only by first name to protect their safety, are thrilled to talk about the journey that brought them here and what they left behind.
Kevin, 16, starts to cry, saying that sometimes along the way he has neither food to eat nor water to drink. He hasn’t seen his father in two years and hopes to reconnect with him in Pennsylvania.
“I’ve been on this path for a month,” he says, wiping his eyes, “and now I’m here.”
All teenagers say they have family members or acquaintances with whom they want to meet in different parts of the United States – Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and Idaho. They say they hope to study here and eventually work.
“There is no work,” he says. “There is no money to study.”
Edgar, 17, shares a similar experience. “The house collapsed around us,” he says. “Thank God my mom is still alive.”
He’s making this journey for her, he says – to help her survive.
A sergeant’s opinion: ‘We are not the bad guys’
It is a scene like many reserve sergeants. Chief Dan Broyles has testified before. In his 37 years in law enforcement, many of whom have been spent patrolling this same stretch of the border, Broyles is familiar with what happens when migrants arrive in the United States.
The job of police officers, he says, is not to decide anyone’s fate. When they find groups here, they escort them to meet with the Border Patrol.
“We are not the bad guys,” he says. “We just want to make sure they are safe and get the medical care they need.”
As Broyles drives us along a rough dirt road that winds along the banks of the Rio Grande, he points to a place where he remembers finding the remains of a man eight years ago.
“He got hurt. He was abandoned by a group and died,” said Broyles, shaking his head. “It’s sad.”
The journey across the border has always been a dangerous one. But in recent years, the people who are doing it are changing. There are many more families and children arriving. And for Broyles, it’s hard to see.
As we walk with him near Rio Grande, Broyles points to diapers on the floor.
“There are one, two, three,” he says. “What does that mean? They are bringing babies. As a parent, I don’t know if I would like to make my children go through this.”
The landscape is full of evidence that children and families are going through
Diapers are not the only signs that children and families have been around. We also see children’s clothes and small masks scattered on the floor.
Documents left by some of the migrants who have passed on tell part of their history. A piece of paper we saw on the brush depicts a 34-year-old mother from Honduras and her 2-year-old son. The document says both tests were negative for Covid before they left his country.
There are also other signs here that point to the new realities of the border. A handwritten note pasted on a tree, inside a bag that says “Department of Homeland Security”, says “ASILO” in capital letters, Spanish for “asylum”.
This is the type of protection that many migrants who cross the border seek. It is getting harder and harder to win, but it is legal to ask for it – and that is one of the reasons why it is common for families and children to go to the authorities after crossing the border and surrender.
That’s where Broyles and other police officers come in. Tonight, it takes them just a few minutes to briefly question each of the teenagers.
Then, they send them to walk down a path, taking them to a Border Patrol processing center under a nearby bridge, which comes into focus when spotlights illuminate it from a distance.
For the teenagers we know, it’s just another step on an already uncertain journey.
CNN’s Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt reported this story in Hidalgo County. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet wrote the story in Arlington, Virginia.