audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - The sudden influx of children into the United States due to instability in Central America has nearly overwhelmed the agencies that must deal with it. Detention facilities for children who cross the border illegally are badly overcrowded. As tens of thousands of Central American children continue to cross the U.S. border, an overwhelmed U.S. government is pressuring its southern neighbors to intercept migrants as they try to make their way north. Mexican security forces have deported thousands. And in Honduras, a U.S. funded special police force called 'Comando Tigres' originally created to fight drug traffickers and other criminals is deployed along the jungle border with Guatemala, aiming to stop human smugglers and families including children as they embark upon the journey north.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 23, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - Members of the U.S.-supported special forces unit, Comando Tigres, patrol the Honduras-Guatemala border near the town of Corinto, which is considered the ''Capital of Coyotes,'' due to the large number of local smugglers who headquarter their operations there, hooking up with migrants wishing to cross into Guatemala and on to the U.S.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
30 a.m. bus heading to Esquipulas, Guatemala, a route controlled by coyotes leading the migrants north to the U.S. border.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2014 - Garcia, Honduras - Members of the U.S.-sponsored Honduran special forces unit, called Comando Tigres, patrol the streets of the tiny village of Garcia near the Guatemalan border.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - BAYRON RIVAS LOPEZ, 16, and his brother Marvin Giovanni, 17, hide their faces after they were detained along with a suspected coyote trying to cross into Guatemala illegally. The alleged coyote was charged with illegally smuggling underage children and the brothers were later released to their family.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 23, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - A little boy watches through a bus window as he and his mother and many more families arrive in the Honduras after being deported from Mexico. The bus stopped briefly for a visit by State Department Counselor, Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon Jr., who talked to the families.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 24, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - Sub-commissioner LAGOS LOBOS, in charge of the Honduran special forces unit called Comando Tigres, hugs a little boy who has just seen commandos interrogate his parents, who were stopped as they tried send their son to the U.S. with a coyote. Lagos was dealing with his own tragedy during the operation, as his ex-wife had smuggled their son into the US without his permission just days earlier.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Aug. 2, 2014 - Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazan, Honduras - A view of Tegucigalpa's downtown high rises, surrounded by slums including Carrizales, one of the most violent neighborhoods in the Honduran capital.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - Members of the U.S.-sponsored Honduran elite police force called the ''Comando Tigres'' interrogate an alleged coyote along with two underage children and two adults, who were detained as they tried to cross into Guatemala. The alleged coyote, Moises Torres Estrada, was later handed to the federal prosecutor's office. The adults were released and the teenagers were held until their parents or other relatives arrived to claim them.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Aug. 2, 2014 - Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazan, Honduras - ALEX FERNANDO, recently deported, jobless and with a newborn son, worries about his future in his violent Tegucigalpa neighborhood, where he cannot afford his monthly rent and his landlady shuts lights at 8pm each night. He is considering a move to the nearby town of Olancho, where he could work selling furniture with his mother Sandra.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - After a tip, members of the U.S.-sponsored Honduran special police called ''Comando Tigres,'' along with Federal Police, break into a local hotel in search of the leader of a human smuggling syndicate. The operation proved to be unsuccessful, as the alleged coyote fled moments before the raid.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - MOISES TORRES ESTRADA, an alleged human smuggler, is detained during a night operation after he attempted to cross into Guatemala with two underage children and two adults.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 28, 2014 - San Pedro Sula, Honduras - A boy from the Garifuna community-descendants of African slaves who live mostly in the coastal area of Honduras-is taken off a bus full of families just deported from Mexico, and arriving at the Instituto de la Ninez y la Familia, IHNFA. The U.S. has pressured Mexico to step up efforts to intercept underage migrants who've been flooding the U.S. border.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 28, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - SANDRA HERRERA keeps a few dollars in a homemade ''Chanel'' wallet, enough to buy bus fare for her son Alex Fernando, 17, who was deported hours earlier from Mexico during a failed attempt to reach the U.S.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 23, 2014 - Corinto, Cortez, Honduras - JORGE ALBA, 16, is fed by Honduran special forces officers after he was stopped with a group of adults trying to cross into Guatemala on their way to the U.S.. Alba said he was trying to escape his life in La Recoleta, a slum area in the nearby port of Cortez where he has been supporting his family by selling coconuts since he was 8 years old. ''I am tired of being a piece of garbage,'' he said, explaining that his father abandoned the family, his mother is a drug addict, and his neighbors treat him badly. Jorge, who barely reads or writes since he was forced to drop out of school and work, said his only pain in leaving was abandoning his little brothers. After eating, police told him he was being sent back to La Recoleta. ''I am screwed,'' Alba said, and cried.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
July 28, 2014 - San Pedro Sula, Cortez, Honduras - ALEX FERNANDO HERRERA, 17, walks through a bus station hours after he was deported from Mexico, where authorities are boosting efforts to turn back Honduran children trying to make it to the U.S. Herrera now faces going home to one of the most violent neighborhoods in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where he dropped out of high school to care for a newborn son.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Aug. 2, 2014 - Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazan, Honduras - ALEX FERNANDO, 17, deported in July during a failed attempt to reach the U.S., stands in front of a mosquito screen outside his home in one of Tegucigalpa's most violent neighborhoods. Unemployed and with a newborn son, he is worried about his future.
© Miguel Juarez Lugo/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
