El Salvador this week launched a public service campaign to educate families about the risks of sending their kids to the US. The animated ad is presented like a storybook, with the voice of a young child reading the title, “The tale of the coyote,” and listing all the terrible things that frequently happen to unaccompanied minors along the northward journey.

“It’s all lies. We spent days without eating and he hit me,” one child tells viewers about the promises made by “coyotes,” or smugglers, of safe passage.

Another child chimes in, “For me, the coyote sold me to other people who forced me to work and abused me.”