The Police Report Symbol Analysis

In Tell Me How It Ends, the police report that Manu presents to Luiselli (and later to his lawyers) comes to represent the stringent nature of the United States’ immigration system. The police report itself outlines the fact that Manu reached out to the authorities for help when he was living in Honduras and trying to seek protection from gangs like Barrio 18 and MS-13. Because the police didn’t do anything to help him, he was forced to take matters into his own hands, ultimately doing so by fleeing to the United States. The police report factors heavily into his defense against deportation, since it proves that he would have no form of reliable protection if he were sent back to Honduras. It is because of this concrete evidence of the Honduran police’s failure to keep him safe that Manu eventually wins special immigrant juvenile status (SIJ) and is able to stay in the United States. However, the fact that the immigration courts require such scrupulous evidence of violent persecution is worth noting, as it indicates the extent to which the government is unwilling to believe children who have suffered intense but physically unprovable trauma. In this sense, the police report symbolizes just how difficult it really is for undocumented minors to defend themselves against deportation, since very few children have “material evidence” of the danger they faced in their home countries.