For many New York kids, summer break means a summer job. Or summer school. Or hanging out in the city with friends. For 13-year-old Vanessa, this summer was spent selling fruit snacks outside a subway stop in midtown Manhattan with her mother. Mango slices, watermelon chunks and cucumber sticks. Vanessa arrived recently from Ecuador. She's in the midst of seeking asylum in the U.S. Her mother, Alejandra, is undocumented and asked that their last name be withheld, in order to protect their family back home. "They are killing people there. There are kidnappings, rapes. I had to take the kids out."
