Feds Lose Track of Most Border-Surge Teens After Release
New information from a variety of sources further demonstrates that the Obama administration’s handling of the continuing influx of illegal Central American family and youth border-crossers has been nothing short of a disaster. Government agencies and NGO contractors have lost track of most of the youth who have been released (or escaped) from shelters. Immigration court records show that about half of the “unaccompanied” alien children (UACs) do not appear for immigration court hearings. A recent murder of one UAC in Virginia by three others is a reminder that some of the kids are involved in gangs. And, because we let them, they keep coming; the number of new arrivals spiked again at the end of the summer, with twice as many Central American youth and families arriving in September 2015 as arrived in September 2014.
No single government agency has been given the responsibility for tracking the UAC and family arrivals. As a result, the statistics that have been published by different sources may have slightly different numbers, depending on the time period covered and how they are counted.
In a recent webinar hosted by the Migration Policy Institute, the director of a legal services organization stated that 77,824 UACs had been released into the United States since October 1, 2014 (not counting the approximately 40,000 who arrived in 2012 and 2013). Most are turned over to their parents, but many are released to the custody of a sponsor — sometimes a relative, but often a “friend”, foster family, or group home run by a government contractor.
In July, federal agents arrested a group of farm labor contractors running a smuggling ring for Guatemalan minors who were then put to work in harsh conditions at an Ohio egg farm. Those who come forward as sponsors are rarely screened, and so some UACs have been released to child molesters and abusers.
Others have run away from the temporary shelters or group homes. In October, four Honduran teenagers escaped from a shelter in Tucson, leading local officials to complain about the lack of transparency and oversight. Last year, two Guatemalan teenagers fled a shelter in Illinois and committed a carjacking in California that led to their re-capture. (Read more from “Feds Lose Track of Most Border-Surge Teens After Release” HERE)
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