Eric Kayne

Projects: Orphaned at the border

The border fence between Agua Prieta, Mexico and Douglas, Arizona. Every year, parents die while crossing the desert in the summer heat, giving the last of their water and food to their children. Survivors sometimes end up in orphanages lining the border.
   
Armando Bermudez installs barbed wire at Casa Pepito. Children are often returned to Mexico and left at the orphanage after being picked up by the Border Patrol trying to enter the United States with their parents. The wire is used to keep them at the orphanage.
   
From left, Eulogio Felix, 9, Sergio Valesquez, 6, "Tia" Lourdes Martinez, and Jennifer hernandez, 7, play in the courtyard of the orphanage.
     
  
Raymundo Avila, 8, cries after not being allowed to follow a group of visitors that left the orphanage.
   
Raymundo Avila, 9, Lorena Rios, son Nathanaiel, seven months, and Evan Rios watch their son Sergio, 7, play during a visitation day. The Rios family has been separated because of parental drug use.
   
Children at the orphanage argue over toys.
     
  
Sergio Valezquez, 6, showers with other children before their eight o' clock bedtime.
   
Ana Rosales carries Hector Galvez, 2, and J. J. Hernandez, 19 months, to bed.
   
Fernando Figueroa, 10, Sergio Valesquez, 6, Rigo Montano, 9, and Eulogio Felix, 9, watch Lucha Libre, or Mexican-style wrestling on television.
     
  
Miriam and Jose Herrera wave goodbye to Hector Galvez, 21 months, who they are in the process of adopting.
   
Sergio Valesquez, 6, and Eulogio Felix, 9, play with a rope and football, tossing it over the wall and pulling it back over again.