by Rogelio Mares / KENS 5

SAN ANTONIO -- The First Lady of Honduras joined San Antonio area Congressman Henry Cuellar on a visit, Saturday, to Lackland Air Force Base, where they met with with undocumented immigrants housed there by the federal government.

They learned more about the epic journeys many of them took to get to the U.S, some of them making the trip without their parents, even though they are children.

Congressman Cuellar and Honduran First Lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez told KENS5, most of the undocumented immigrants sheltered here at Lackland were brought by smugglers on a bus across Mexico and simply left at the U.S. with no instruction or help.

That only touches the surface of what these children said they endured.

"They're teaching them English, basic things about being here in the U.S.," Cuellar said.

He, along with Honduran First Lady Garcia de Hernandez, learned details that shed light on the journey these children took to get across the border- albeit illegally.

Bus rides across Mexico by human traffickers.

"A third of the girls were sexually abused on the trip," Garcia de Hernandez said.

For the girls who make it to the U.S, treatment awaits, according to Cuellar.

"Psychological, mental treatments, everything they need are being taken care of."

Cuellar added that trafficking is a lucrative illegal enterprise, noting that 48-thousand undocumented immigrants were detained at the U.S. border in May alone.

"Multiply that of an average what a coyote smuggler charges of 5,000 dollars, that's 48,000 times 5,000, that will give you 48,000 times 5,000 $240-million dollars."

Garcia de Hernandez made a personal plea to families in her native Honduras, from where many of these young immigrants are fleeing for a hope in the States.

"What we've seen, and I speak as a mother, no child should make the trip across Mexico and be exposed to rape and sexual abuse," Garcia de Hernandez said.

Cuellar said he hopes to influence change in how the law treats undocumented immigrants when they arrive in the United States from countries other than Mexico, right now Cuellar said, it can years for these immigrants to be returned to their home countries and he hopes to make that process much quicker.