Immigrant Children at Border Have High Chance of Staying in the U.S.

By Mary Anne R. (staff@latinpost.com) First Posted: Jan 06, 2021 04:37 AM EST

Immigrant children make Christmas decorations during class at "The Sidewalk School" at a camp for asylum seekers on December 08, 2019 in the Mexican border town of Matamoros, Mexico. The weekly class, where U.S. volunteers teach basic English, math and geography is run by the "Team Brownsville" humanitarian assistance organization for immigrants seeking political asylum in the United States. The squalid camp, located across the international bridge from Brownsville, Texas houses more than 1,000 Central American and Mexican immigrants. Most asylum seekers and now required by the U.S. government to stay in Mexico during the legal asylum process, part of the Trump Administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy. (Photo : John Moore/Getty Images)

Immigrant children arriving at the United States-Mexico border from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have more than a 95 percent chance of remaining in the U.S. after their arrival, according to newly released data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The DHS data that was released this week showed the extent to which immigrant children from the three Central American countries are much more likely to remain in the U.S. than not.

According to a Breitbart News report, these children are often placed with an illegal immigrant relative already living in the country. A total of 315,582 immigrant children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border from early 2013 to 2020.

More than 95 percent or about 300,900 have no confirmed departure from the U.S., implying that they remain in the United States while failing to voluntarily deport or being in the process of being given immigration relief.

Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

In 2019, federal immigration officials counted more than 64,000 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador at the southern border.

Out of those counts, just 2.15 percent were removed to their native country, while 98 percent have no confirmed departure from the U.S. States like New York, Texas, California, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, and Virginia were the areas that usually receive immigrants from the UAC program.

More than 165,000 UACs have been released into the United States since President Donald Trump took office.

Immigrants' Treatment

Cuba recently reiterated its condemnation of the U.S. policies against migrant families who tried to seek asylum from violence and poverty in their home countries.

"U.S. treatment of migrant children is consistent with torture as defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics. President [Donald] Trump's promotion of inhuman policies marks treatment to thousands of persons and the separation of children from their parents," Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said in an Anadolu Agency news report.

Parilla was referring to an updated version of the academy's report published on Jan. 1. According to the study, border crossings have increasingly involved families and unaccompanied children since 2000.

Authorities apprehended more than 851,000 persons on the U.S. southwestern border in 2019. That includes families with a count of 473,682 and unaccompanied minors with a 76,000 count.

The data also stated that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently ordered the deportation of immigrant children without notification to their families, under the pretense of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

The study also called the treatment against children at the border as cruel, inhuman, and degrading that rises to the level of torture. Since Nov. 18 last year, the Trump government has barred unaccompanied immigrant children at the border.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put 33 unaccompanied children on a flight to Guatemala on the day that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the decision blocking the administration's move to turn immigrant children away based on CDC's public health restrictions, according to a Vox report.

Tags Immigrant Children, U.S., children of immigrants