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,