s. with waves like this, it's hoped that will soon change. >> the first stop for many child migrants to the united states is this border patrol facility in mcallen, texas. >> "good afternoon, welcome to the rio grande valley processing center..." >> it opened this summer in response to an influx of unaccompanied minors from mexico and central america. >> do you think this is an immigration issue or a refugee issue? do you think some of them will be granted political asylum? >> we're not talking about criminals. these are innocent children, fleeing desperate times, whether it's poverty, whether it's violence, whether

it's the draw of a better life in the united states. >> the obama administration has made it clear: most of the children will be deported. but they continue to arrive -- twice as many as last year, and 4 times as many as in 2011. >> we've been riding along the border all week and we're seeing some action in this area. we're not far away from the river and from mexico. we see some border patrol vehicles over there and some people on the floor, we're going to go check what's going on. >> border patrol has apprehended another group of undocumented immigrants from central america. one by one, their names are taken, their belongings bagged.

in this group of 30, we counted about a dozen children -- some of the tens of thousands who have come this year. fault lines investigates what's driving this migration boom, what children have left behind ...and whether they'll be able to stay. nearly 70,000 unaccompanied children have arrived in the us from mexico and central america this year. but many more don't make it past the border.

the children staying at this detention facility were all caught by mexican immigration before they could make it across. one of them is 14-year-old josue jonas ramirez. he's made the grueling 1,500 mile trip from el salvador. that's only half way to his mother, who paid a smuggler $4,000 to bring him to new york. it has been ten years since they last saw each other.

>> josue told us that he had to leave el salvador. it had become unsafe for him. >> after his dad was killed by gangs, a gang tried to recruit his older brother, who fled to the states. this year josue, who has been living with his uncle, began to run out of options.

>> josue was just one of the thousands of salvadoran children who have made the journey this year. >> violence in el salvador is rooted in structural, historical causes, one of which is poverty, the exclusion and marginalization of great portions of its population. >> hector silva is a salvadoran journalist. he says gangs have sparked the most recent exodus of children. >> i think now and for a decade, decade and a half, they are the

most violent, and one of the most influential components of the whole equation, of violence, impunity, poverty, inequality, marginalization that has plagued these countries, my country, our countries for a long time. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines.

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>> josue's immediate family lives more than three thousand miles away -- near new york city. >> last year his mother luz paid several thousand dollars to send for her oldest son

daniel roberto. unlike josue daniel roberto reached us soil before being detained by border patrol. and from there where did they send you? us law protected him from immediate deportation. instead, daniel roberto was released to his mother. now he's fighting for asylum.

are you afraid for josue? >> immigration lawyers say us judges rarely grant asylum to children who escaped gang violence. daniel roberto's mother, luz, left her boys a decade ago.

>> a lot of people find it difficult to understand how a mother can leave her kids behind. what would you say to them? >> in el salvador, josue is back in the neighborhood where his brother fled gang recruitment and where his father was killed by gangs. his grandparents live next door, but so do members from the ms-13 gang.

he says that's the hammock where the gang members come and sleep at night. this is right next to his home. the salvadoran government is threatening to take josue from his uncle if he's caught leaving the country again. >> when he arrived you told him to stay inside the house because you were worried that he might be picked up by some gangs? >> you told me before that you were not going to go to school? why is that?

>> do you think that josue might be in the same type of danger? >> you will be 15 this november, are you afraid of what will happen then? >> above all implications origins, considerations about gang members, whether they're really fleeing gang violence or not. they are children they are vulnerable. so my take would be, yes, these are refugees.

>> as long as the causes down there in central america are the same and they are the same and i don't see any public policy addressing those, and the us doesn't have the important meaningful conversation about how it is going to treat the immigration problem, the conditions are there the road is open. >> these people have decided that today they will be arrested >> i know that i'm being surveilled >> people are not getting the care that they need >> this is a crime against humanity >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> what do we want? justice! >> when do we want it? >> now!

>> they are running towards base... >>...explosions going off we're not quite sure... >> fault lines al jazeera america's award winning, investigative series... on al jazeera america >> undercover and now she's taking us to new york city where some of the toughest put it to the test. >> the engineer who designed the bionic eye.