Number of Unaccompanied Illegal-Alien Minors in Detention Centers Increases 50%
Over the nine-month period ending June 30, 2012, the number of unaccompanied illegal-alien minors in U.S. detention centers increased almost 50 percent. Most of the growth came from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to a report by the Women's Refugee Commission.
The report, which analyzed federal statistics, said the numbers in detention centers grew from 6,854 in fiscal 2011 to more than 10,000 by mid-2012. The report says the trend is expected to continue.
The number of alien children apprehended at the border also is rising dramatically. The Border Patrol reported it caught 15,590 unaccompanied alien minors between October 2011 and June 2012. That compares to 10,776 during the previous year. Most are boys between ages 14 and 17, although some are younger.
The Women's Refugee Commission interviewed 151 minors in detention facilities in an effort to learn why they crossed the border alone. Almost 80 percent told researchers that gang violence was the main reason although the minors also cited having parents already in the U.S. and difficulties travelling together as a family.
A 2011 Mexican law, which lets some children who enter that country remain there without visas, may explain the increased numbers from Central American countries in particular. With safe passage to the U.S. border, smugglers hired by family members in the U.S. have an easier time transporting the children during one leg of the journey.
Discussions of amnesty for alien minors over the last several years may have induced more to risk travelling alone. Although the DREAM Act was first introduced in 2003, illegal alien advocates increased pressure on Congress to pass the bill after comprehensive amnesty legislation died in 2008. Several subsequent attempts to pass the DREAM Act failed. Then in 2011, the Obama Administration announced a new prosecutorial discretion policy which decreased the risk of deportation for illegal aliens without serious criminal records.
Early this year, the numbers of unaccompanied alien minors increased so quickly that it caught the Obama Administration off-guard. In some cases, the Administration housed the minors at military facilities in border states. In May, Texas Gov. Rick Perry blamed President Obama for the increase in unaccompanied alien minors. By not deporting more of the unaccompanied children, Perry said, the administration is “perpetuating” the reasons they come.
The Administration’s executive amnesty, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, could encourage more alien minors to cross the border unaccompanied. DACA gives qualifying illegal aliens under the age of 31 a two-year stay of deportation and a work permit. To qualify, an alien minor must prove, among other things, that he/she came to the United States under the age of sixteen and resided here continuously for at least five years prior to June 15, 2012. DACA’s critics argue that these requirements will not deter new amnesty seekers because the documents necessary to prove continuous residency can be easily forged.
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