"Children do not immigrate; they flee." Fernando Stein has used this simple phrase during the recent years that he has been thrust into the debate related to the migration of children alone or with families across the southern border of the United States. Most of these human beings come from the "Trifinio," the tri-country area where the borders of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador touch one another. Murder rates in the area are the second highest in the region, behind only Venezuela. The combined murder rate of Latin America is three times higher than the rest of the world. In addition to violence, extreme poverty leading to malnutrition significantly increases the risk of death in children. Parents in these regions are faced with heart-wrenching decisions that play out with the following calculus in the current context: keep children close and face the risk of their death by bullet or famine, or hand children to a "coyote" (a person who smuggles people illegally into the United States) and send them north in the hopes of a better and safer life. This is an an extreme expression of the most basic of biological instincts--to save one's young. This is the biology of hope. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has taken a strong and unequivocal position in opposing the treatment of children as criminals and housing them in prison-like environments. Stein had the privilege of joining AAP leaders visiting the southwestern border of the United States, including the detention facilities there and community organizations that help immigrant families and children who have been released after being legally processed. In these places, one truly sees it all. In this article, Stein briefly describes what he saw.