The number of unaccompanied children crossing into the United States has nearly doubled in the last year, signaling an alarming trend that is becoming a troubling humanitarian crisis. 

Since October, there has been a record number of unaccompanied children apprehended along the U.S./Mexico border, according to a new study completed by the Pew Research Center. President Obama has deemed it an "urgent humanitarian situation."

According to the study, 47,017 unaccompanied children under 18 were apprehended between Oct. 1, 2013 and May 31 of this year. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the number of children crossing the border without a parent or guardian was twice as high as the entirety of last year, as last year there were 24,493 unaccompanied children taken into custody. 

An unofficial government estimate projects that the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied children will rise to 90,000 in 2014, which will be four times higher than in 2013. 

According to Pew, emergency shelters at military bases in Texas, California and Oklahoma have been opened to house the children, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a $2 million legal aid program last week to help the children during court proceedings. 

Three of every four unaccompanied children are from Central America, even though the highest number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. come from Mexico. The highest number of unaccompanied children come from Honduras, most likely to due the dangerous gang violence that has gripped the Central American nation. 

More than 13,000 unaccompanied children from Honduras were taken into custody at the border, compared to 968 five years ago. The number of unaccompanied children from Honduras apprehended this year is almost twice as high as last year. 

Megan McKenna, the Communications and Advocacy Director of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a pro bono group of law firms and organizations that provides legal counsel for unaccompanied refugee and immigrant children, spoke to Latin Post about the worsening issue.

McKenna said children are fleeing the violence in Guatemala and El Salvador in addition to Honduras. 

"The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) found in a recent report that the majority of these children should be screened for international protection because their country is unable to protect them from this violence," McKenna said. "We are facing a refugee-like situation."

Officials in the Obama administration agree, attributing the increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border to violence and ailing economies in El Salvador and Honduras.  

McKenna also said the U.N. found that asylum requests by Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans seeking refuge in countries like Mexico, Panama, Belize and Costa Rica has risen 712 percent since 2009. 

"Children are also leaving their communities trying to find safety elsewhere in their country, becoming internally displaced," she added. 

While KIND does not blame U.S. immigration laws for the increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border, the group does believe that the U.S. needs to work on rectifying the growing issue, which includes reforming some aspects of the immigration system. 

"The U.S. should devote more resources to addresses the root causes of this migration and help the top-sending countries bolster their national child welfare system," McKenna said. "This will enable these children to access the protection and services they need so they can stay safely and sustainably in their home countries."

She also said the U.S. should modify immigration laws, including ensuring that children are screened for protection risks, and that "those who are screened in have a meaningful chance to access our system, including by the provision of attorneys to help them make their case for U.S. protection."

The increase in unaccompanied children being taken into custody has occurred mostly in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande sector located along the southern tip of Texas. 

Seventy-one percent of apprehensions of unaccompanied children occurred in the sector, which is up 168 percent from last year. The area with the next highest number is Tuscon, which had 6,254 apprehensions this year so far.

There has also been a rumor spread that children who cross the border without guardians or parents will not be deported. 

Republicans attribute the increase in unaccompanied minors to a policy that allows two-year work permits and a moratorium on deportation to more than 600,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Republicans blame the measure for creating the rumor that the U.S. will not deport unaccompanied children who cross the border. 

Children who are apprehended at the border are placed in deportation proceedings, then are turned over to a family member who lives in the United States, if possible, while their case is taken to immigration court. If the child does not have a family member living in the U.S., the children are placed under the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Mexican children are more likely to be deported to their home country due to a deal between the U.S. and Mexico. 

According to KIND, children are repatriated to their home country without considering the child's best interests. Children are sent back to their home countries where they may have no one to care for them, and are often sent back to dangerous, often life-threatening situations. 

Pew reports that 98 percent of children from Mexico who were apprehended last year by authorities were ages 12 to 17, and 89 percent were males. 

However, McKenna said that many more young girls are also coming to the U.S. unaccompanied, many of whom are younger than 13 years old. 

"Significantly more girls are coming than before the surge, even when it is well known that girls are at high risk for sexual violence on the journey to the U.S.," she said. "These facts underscore the desperation that is driving this migration."