In 2018, 5-year-old Adonias and his father fled death threats in Guatemala, seeking asylum in the United States. But instead, Border Patrol agents had sent his dad to an immigration jail and Adonias to a children’s shelter in Chicago. Days after their reunion, his father wondered what had happened in the 10 weeks they were apart. He knew there were allegations that Adonias had been injected with something that made him sleepy when he misbehaved — accusations state and federal authorities are investigating but could be difficult to definitively resolve. The shelter adamantly denies any wrongdoing, and the boy’s medical records show no injections of anything except vaccines. But an independent psychological evaluation before his release found he was “exhibiting signs of trauma, particularly when triggered by [a toy] syringe.” Adonias’s case has become emblematic of concerns about the treatment of thousands of migrant children, especially those taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
Written by Michael E. Miller. Photographed for The Washington Post.
