Smuggled to America: Deng Chen's parents sent him from China to the U.S. when he was 14, in the hope of giving him a better life. He spent years paying for their decision.

• Author: Kotlowitz, Alex
• Position: Cover story

Deng Chen was 14 years old when his parents paid smugglers $45,000 to take him from a small village in China to the United States--alone.

One day in 1997, Chen says, his mother came to his school, took him out of class, and told him that he was going to the U.S. She had packed Chen's clothes in a small suitcase, and she whispered that she had sewn $300 in American currency into a pair of his underwear. That was it; just a long, tearful hug at the airport.

Chen was given false papers, and traveled with a smuggler who posed as his mother. He never had to answer customs officials' questions; the woman did all the talking. They flew to Los Angeles and on to New York, where they were met by two men who drove them to a basement apartment.

That same day, he was put on the phone with his mother and instructed to tell her that he had arrived in New York. Chen's family then made their $45,000 payment to the smugglers. Once the payment went through, Chen was released and dropped off on the streets of Chinatown. He asked passers-by for help in purchasing a phone card and went to call his mother.

It is estimated that 10,000 to 50,000 Chinese are smuggled into the U.S. each year. The smugglers--known as "snakeheads"--have become quite sophisticated. Though many Chinese still come illegally by boat, many now also arrive by plane with false papers.

"A lot of Americans have a hard time understanding it," says Ko-lin Chin, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "But put yourself in their shoes." If they remain in China, Chin says, they will earn perhaps $200 a month. If they come to the United States, they can earn $2,000 a month working at a restaurant. Once the debt is paid off, most continue to send money home and often help to pay for another family member to come to the U.S.

These days, more illegal immigrant children--mostly teenagers--find themselves alone in the U.S. (SEE "VOICES," p. 28.) They are sent here to work, to send money back home, or in the hope that they will have a better life. In 2005, immigration authorities detained 7,787 unaccompanied minors trying to enter this country, up 26 percent from the previous year. These numbers don't include all those who get in undetected, like Chen.

IN DEBT TO LOAN SHARKS

Chen, who is now 23, grew up in a rural village in Fujian Province, about 400 miles south of Shanghai. His father worked at a local food store, and his mother labored at a brick factory. His mother told Chen that she worried he would end up leading a miserable life if he were to stay in China.

In that phone conversation with his mother when he first arrived in New York, Chen learned of the debt his family now carried. His mother cried, telling him he had to send money home or their lives would be in danger. Like many other families, Chen's had borrowed the money from loan sharks, who exact revenge if debtors fall behind in their payments.

Chen's mother told him to ask around for employment agencies. For $30 or $40, the agencies in Chinatown connect job seekers with positions, mostly at Chinese restaurants. But Chen could barely see over the counters, and he was told he was too young.

He spent the next three nights sleeping on a park bench. Chen returned to the employment agencies, only to be turned away again. Dejected, he sat outside on some steps. By chance, a man from Chen's village in China came by and offered to let Chen sleep on the floor of his room. He also found Chen a job at a local garment factory cutting loose threads from shirts. Chen earned two cents for...