Border Children Immigration Crisis

452665944Immigrants from Central American await transportation to a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on July 24, 2014, near Mission, Texas.

The boundary between the United States and Mexico is the perennial focus of efforts by the U.S. Border Patrol to manage or deter attempts by immigrants to enter the country illegally. In recent months, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in particular has been flooded with thousands of unaccompanied minors venturing to cross into the United States without immigration papers. The vast majority of them are arriving from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. These Central American countries are undergoing a crisis of violence, which is producing an immigration crisis especially for the United States. U.S. president Barack Obama declared an “urgent humanitarian situation” on June 2.

In late May and June an average of 250 to 300 unaccompanied children were caught by the Border Patrol each day, with 458 detained on June 10 alone. The majority of the children are teenagers, but even a few very young children were among those apprehended. This year there has been a 117 percent increase in the number of unaccompanied minors younger than 12 years old caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, compared to 2013.

Many of the children arriving say they fear for their lives if returned to their countries of origin. The sheer number of arrivals is overwhelming the system for processing applications for refugee status or asylum. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has set up additional detention centers, and in some cases moved children to places outside the border area to await processing. How to care for these children and provide them due process is not a simple matter, since U.S. law limits who is eligible to receive asylum.

Image credit: © John Moore/Getty Images

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8 Comments

  1. Melissa says:

    This is baloney sandwiches, this is just crazy and sad

  2. Anonymous says:

    sad story

  3. yashmere says:

    awesome

  4. surpriser says:

    I feel bad for the kids who were sent to a different country

  5. angeline says:

    I feel so sorry for those poor kids if it wasn’t for there stupid government none of that wouldn’t happen.

  6. Supercoolmacdaddy says:

    this is really sad I mean like all they want to get away from the violence