Photography by Deanna Dent

Editor’s note: In July 2008, PHOENIX magazine published an exclusive story about three American siblings who had been abandoned by their mother in Mexico and were stuck in a Mexican orphanage. We received several letters and phone calls from readers who wanted to know what happened to the children after the story came out. This month, the Arizona State University student who photographed the original story, Deanna Dent, has written this Web-exclusive follow-up.

Border Orphans Revisited

As I walked up to the orphanage for the first time in nearly six months, my heart sank as I heard my name yelled by the gravelly voice that could only belong to Rainny Mejia.

Rainny, or Lluvia, is the eldest of the three American siblings being cared for at Casa de Elizabeth orphanage in Imuris, Sonora, Mexico. Though the three children are American citizens, they were placed in the orphanage through the Mexican Desarollo Integral Familiar, the equivalent to Child Protective Services in the United States.

Rainny, Junior and Lolita crowd around me and ask if I have spoken with their abuelita, or grandmother.

I respond honestly, “No.”

“She has come to visit us, she is going to take us with her,” says Rainny, as I’ve heard her say many times. This time I thought it might be true after the PHOENIX magazine feature brought their story to light last summer.

I ask Manuel Vergara, director of the orphanage, if this is true. “No, they haven’t had any visitors,” he says.

In fact, the orphanage has had nearly no visitors in the latter half of 2008. Six months earlier, myself and other Americans were asked to refrain from visiting the border orphanage after a group of armed men broke into the girls’ dormitory and threatened to take a child. Though they left the orphanage empty-handed, the buildings remain locked after 9 p.m., and floodlights surround the 15-foot-high fences.

The border violence that once seemed to plague larger cities like Tijuana or Juarez has seeped into the smaller, sleepier towns like Imuris – which has a modest population of a little more than 10,000 – and into the lives of these children.

Vergara does mention a lawyer from the “other side” (America) and that someone has been in contact from the U.S. consulate about the siblings, and he talks about two other American children being cared for in Casa de Elizabeth. Gaby Vergara, Manuel’s wife and fellow director, say they love to care for the children, but with more than 90 mouths to feed, the siblings certainly might fare better if their family in the United States were caring for them.

“We love all the children,” says Gaby, “but if they could be on the other side, it would be better for them.”