The children's immigration crisis is the acceleration in 2014 of the surge in unaccompanied children migrating to the United States from Central America that was recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in fiscal year 2011 when 4,059 unaccompanied children were apprehended at the U.S. border. The surge increased rapidly, doubling in volume each year,^[1] reaching crisis proportions in late 2013 and 2014 when tens of thousands of women and children from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador migrated to the United States.^[2] Many of the children were an “unaccompanied alien child” as defined by 6 U.S.C. § 279(g)(2) as "a child under 18 who has no lawful status in the United States, and either has no parent/legal guardian in the United States, or has no parent/legal guardian available to provide care and physical custody."^[3]

Background

Most women and children from Central America simply crossed the Rio Grande and turned themselves into to the United States Border Patrol, relying on the belief, partly well founded,^[4] that United States immigration and refugee law made special provision for children. The large number of migrants entitled to hearings, counsel, and placement overwhelmed U.S. immigration courts and other government facilities.

The United States Department of Justice reported in June 2014 that it will provide around 100 lawyers and paralegals for the rising number of children coming to the United States without parents or relatives. Under this program, the federal government will issue $2 million in grants to compensate lawyers and paralegals representing unaccompanied children.^[5] Attorney General Eric Holder stated, "We're taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society.” The Obama administration estimates roughly 60,000 unaccompanied children will come across the border to the US in 2014.^[6] A 2014 Mother Jonesarticle suggests many of these unaccompianied children are attempting to escape abusive situations.^[7] Analysis of Border Patrol statistics^[8] shows a correlation between gang-related killing of children in Central America, particularly San Pedro Sula in Honduras, and the surge in migration.^[9]

Federal responsibilities

The provisions of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which give substantial rights^[10] and protection to unaccompanied children from countries which do not have a common border with the United States such as the nations of Central America other than Mexico, made expeditious deportation of the large number of children from Central America who came to the United States in 2014 difficult and expensive, prompting a call by President Barack Obama for an emergency appropriation of $4 billion^[11] and resulting in discussions by the Department of Justice and Congress of how to interpret or revise the law in order to expedite handling large numbers of children under the act.^[4] One solution, proposed by the Department of Justice in July 2014, is to move cases involving children and families with children to the head of the docket in immigration courts.^[12]

According to the Immigrant Rights' Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its subunits, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). usually called the immigration courts, within the United States Department of Justice each have statutory responsibilities with respect to unaccompanied children from Central America, or other nations that do not share a common border with the United States. According to the ACLU the stipulated settlement in Flores v. Meese, which is a United States District Court for the Central District of California decision which sets out a nationwide policy concerning federal detention of any minor,^[13] also applies.^[10]

Resources

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), provides free legal aid to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings across the U.S. KIND was founded in October 2008 by Angelina Jolie in a collaboration with the Microsoft Corporation and 25 leading U.S. law firms.^[14]

Public and political reaction

In early July 2014 the border crisis was the focus of extended coverage by cable news channels such as CNN and provided rich fodder for conservative denunciations of Obama for projecting an inappropriately welcoming message to potential immigrants. On the other hand, members of the Hispanic caucus called for humane measures with respect to families and children fleeing violence in Central America and continued efforts to refine administrative policy with respect to the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States.^[15]

On July 9, 2014 a hearing on the crisis was held by the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The testimony of Statement of Craig Fugate Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency U.S. Department of Homeland Security was that "We are talking about large numbers of children, without their parents, who have arrived at our border—hungry, thirsty, exhausted, scared and vulnerable."^[16][17] Senator Dianne Feinstein compared the crisis to the American refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany aboard the MS St. Louis.^[18] The President's request for additional funds was met in both houses of Congress by proposals to modify or eliminate the rights granted by the 2008 William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection reauthorization of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000^[19]

As most unaccompanied children from Central America do not attempt to avoid capture but turn themselves into the Border Patrol after entering the United States, they usually cross the Rio Grande into Texas. The large number of children overwhelmed facilities in Texas in summer 2014 and some of the women and children were transferred to INS facilities in California. In most instances this occurred without incident, but in Murrieta, California on July 1, 2014 buses carrying immigrants to a Border Patrol facility were blocked by flag-waving protesters.^[20] On July 15, 2014, in Oracle, Arizona, pro and con demonstrators faced off regarding possible use of a local facility to house immigrant children. The location of the shelters being used is confidential, but a local law enforcement officer had informed the community of the planned use of the facility.^[21]

Some conservatives see the sudden influx as being planned by the Obama administration (even postulating a Cloward–Piven strategy), based upon an advertisement posted in January of 2014 by the Department of Homeland Security seeking a contractor to manage and transport approximately 65,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) "ages infant to 17 years of age."^[22] This number is set in contrast to an average annual number of 5,000 UAC.^[23] The Department of Health and Human Services stated in its “Budget in Brief” that the annual number or arriving UAC had increased from 6,560 to an estimated 60,000 for fiscal year 2014,^[24] and the Government anticipated awarding a five year contract to deal with them.

See also

• Sin Nombre (2009 film)

References

External links and further reading

• Children on the Run: Unaccompanied children leaving Central America and Mexico and the Need for International Protection A Study Conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean Washington, D.C. (UNHCR): From the executive summary: "Because the potential need for international protection of so many of these children is a core finding of this study, “international protection” is defined here to ensure that its meaning is clearly understood. It is the responsibility of States to protect their citizens. When Governments are unwilling or unable to protect their citizens, individuals may suffer such serious violations of their rights that they are forced to leave their homes and often even their families to seek safety in another country. Since, by definition, the governments of their home countries no longer protect the basic rights of these individuals, the international community must step in to ensure that those basic rights, as articulated in numerous international and regional instruments, are respected. The principal means for providing international protection to individuals unable to receive protection in their countries of origin is the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. To receive protection under these instruments, an individual must satisfy the definition of “refugee,” and there must not be any reason, as articulated in the 1951 Convention, to exclude an individual from such protection. Once an individual is found to be a refugee, protection under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol must be granted. The foremost protection is the guarantee against return to danger or non‑refoulement – the cornerstone of international refugee protection – and the ability to remain lawfully in the country of asylum."
• Forced Displacement and Protection Needs produced by new forms of Violence and Criminality in Central America, commissioned by UNHCR and issued in May 2012 by the International Centre for the Human Rights of Migrants (CIDEHUM)
• "The GOP’s Completely Incoherent Stance on the B*order Crisis" blog commentary by Zoë Carpenter on The Nation
• "Gov. Perry: Once and for all, secure the border" oped by Governor Rick Perry in USA Today July 9, 2014
• "President Obama on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children" 25 minute video of press conference in Dallas July 9, 2014
• Democracy Now coverage July 11, 2013:
  • ""We Should Be Protecting Children": Rep. Gutiérrez Supports Funds for Humanitarian Crisis at Border"
  • "Worst of the American Spirit": Advocates Decry Anti-Immigrant Protests, Urge Asylum for Children"
• Children in Need of Defense (KIND)