# @cnn on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz8wYQ6MSFR
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/10022424-cnn-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5a8d8cd93a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-11-22T13:03:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** CNN (@CNN) — https://gondola.cc/CNN

## Caption

It was Thanksgiving Day 2007 in the remote desert near the Mexican border. Chris Buchleitner was 9 years old.

He had just survived a car crash. His mother Dawn had driven their van off the road and they had tumbled down a steep hill. Now his mother was injured and trapped in the crumpled van, down in a canyon. Chris had climbed out and gone to look for help.

The nine-year-old was lonely, afraid, running out of ideas. And then, in the gathering dusk, he saw a stranger approaching.

The man, named Manuel, had come from Mexico. He’d crossed the border illegally, planning to start a new life.

Manuel could keep going, safe for now from the Border Patrol, and leave the boy on his own. Or he could stay, help the boy, and risk getting caught by the same people he’d been evading for the last three days.

Manuel Cordova’s decision would have profound consequences for them both. Later, when the story got out, it would be invoked in the highly charged national debate about the costs and benefits of illegal immigration. That conversation would intensify in the years that followed.

But as night fell on Forest Service Road 39, political arguments did not matter. There was only a boy who needed protection, a woman who needed rescuing, and a man who appeared to be their only hope.

Read the full story at the link in bio.

📸: Buchleitner family & Jeffry Scott/Arizona Daily Star/AP | Austin Steele/Julian Rigg/CNN

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,462,658
- **Likes:** 43,544
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 539

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CNN | @CNN | https://gondola.cc/CNN | Television News Network |
| Sofia Barrett | @sofia_barrett | https://gondola.cc/sofia_barrett | Producer |

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