Child-Migrant Problem on Rise

POLITICO

By David Rogers

September 28, 2012

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81780.html

Apart from keeping the lights on, the stopgap spending bill signed by President Barack Obama Friday is its own “to-do” list for Washington: spending add-ons for cybersecurity, forest fires, nuclear weapons modernization, veterans’ benefits.

But amid all the numbers in the six month, $1.047 trillion measure, none stands out more than a little-noticed $132 million increase to address the flood of unaccompanied child migrants crossing the Southwest Border from Central America.

These are teenagers and younger, often riding alone atop freight trains to cross Mexico from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. And the new spending for these children is a wake-up call of sorts for Washington to a genuine humanitarian crisis, the government’s own struggles to cope, real costs for American taxpayers, with no one fully understanding the dynamics of what is happening.

Indeed, even as Border Patrol detentions are down historically, the tide of under-18 migrants remains strong and inside the numbers, the population mix has changed dramatically.

Fewer are coming from Mexico, more from Central America, making it harder to send them back home quickly to their families. And the result is a near doubling in the caseload for the Office of Refugee Resettlement inside Health and Human Services, the department charged with taking care of the children after the first 72 hours of detention.

In federal-speak these are UAC’s: Unaccompanied Alien Children. Three quarters are male, averaging just over 14, according to the government. But more girls are showing up according to child advocates. And a front-page New York Times account in August detailed the poignant story of a 6-year-old boy caught up in an immigration court in Texas after crossing the border to try to reach his illegal immigrant parents inside the U.S.

The Women’s Refugee Commission will release a detailed report in mid-October on its own findings from interviewing more than 150 of the children. Already from briefings, it seems clear that the wave of violent crime from drug cartels and trafficking in Central America is a factor.

“There are a myriad of reasons but the most striking thing for me was that all the children I talked to knew in advance how dangerous it was to cross through Mexico and they still did it,” said Jennifer Podkul, an attorney who participated in the WRC study. “I’m not new to this, I’ve handled these cases,” she told POLITICO. “But the desperation to make that journey alone. I just thought, ‘Things must be so bad at home.’”

A review of Border Patrol data for the past four years helps to frame the crisis.

From 2009 through 2011, the average number of UAC detainees per year was about 20,500— more than two-thirds from Mexico. Through July—or the first 10 months of fiscal year 2012 ending Sunday—the comparable numbers show a modest increase to 21,842. But the Mexican portion has dropped to about half while the 2012 numbers from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador total almost 8,200, more than double the average for the prior three years.

For the Border Patrol, these numbers are still small in the larger scheme of things: UAC detainees accounted for just about 7 percent of illegal immigrants apprehended through July this year. But the impact is huge for the refugee office which must provide shelter, medical care and screening, all while coordinating with legal services and background checks as the children are relocated.

Before 2003, this was the responsibility of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and children could be thrown into a prison environment while waiting to have their cases heard. In creating the Homeland Security Department, Congress shifted the responsibility to HHS, which is widely credited with more humane treatment— albeit still in the legal limbo of the immigration courts.

Lessons have been learned from the current crisis, but it is a delicate balance. There is a constant push-and-pull between wanting to process the children faster and find sponsors versus the need to protect and prepare them for release.

HHS estimates it had been processing an average of 7,000 to 8,000 children a year. But by the end of August, the total for 2012 was already 12,421 and is now expected to hit close to 14,500 altogether.

Caught off-guard, the administration had to scramble this year, using military facilities to find bed space in some cases. Spending rose from an initial appropriation of $169 million for fiscal 2012 to about $267 million.

Under the terms of the continuing resolution — known as a CR — negotiated with Congress, the additional $132 million will be added to the larger budget for refugee resettlement office — the ORR. But most of this increase is intended to go to the UAC program, meaning its total resources could reach about $300 million in 2013.

“It is always difficult to put a dollar value on humanitarian work,” Eskinder Negash, ORR’s director told POLITICO. But it is not cheap.

The refugee office estimates that on average each child stays in its care about 50 to 72 days; child advocates say the pressure to turn around cases is so great that corners are being cut and in fact, the stays are shorter.

But just assuming the $267 million spent in fiscal 2012 covered 14,500 cases that translates to as much as $18,400 per child. Part of the high cost is explained by the required investment in infrastructure when expanding so quickly. But in the negotiations on the continuing resolution, it took some time to convince House Republicans, since their draft bill for HHS had assumed a cut —not an increase—in the refugee office’s 2013 budget.

The opposite is the case now. With the additional $132 million, ORR’s total appropriations under the six-month CR will reach an annual rate of $900 million. That’s $95 million more than Obama first proposed last winter. And it’s a 17 percent increase over 2012 and 37 percent above what the House GOP had first proposed in its own 2013 budget bill.

“The care provided to unaccompanied children improved significantly with the transfer of custody from DHS to HHS in 2003. However, major gaps remain,” said Michelle Brané, a WRC director. “The majority of children still go before the immigration court without the assistance of an attorney. Too few children receive services to ensure that they will be safe when they are released from care.”

“Existing gaps in care and services are exacerbated by the increase in the number of children arriving, so additional funds are needed if we are to adequately care for and protect them.”

That said, in many cases these same children turn out to be seeking parents who entered the U.S. illegally years before. And the high cost is sure to infuriate conservatives who prefer stricter enforcement instead.

Child rights advocates would answer that given the level of violence and danger which the migrants are fleeing, many –especially those who are orphans—are not truly illegal and should qualify as refugees deserving asylum.

A doctoral student at San Diego State University, Elizabeth Kennedy, both volunteers in shelters caring for the children and is researching the phenomenon of unaccompanied child migrants as part of her dissertation.

“You can’t separate this migration from the violence associated with the U.S. drug policy,” she told POLITICO. “This is a U.S. driven problem and we can’t escape being culpable for it.”

“These are very resilient people to have come so far alone,” she says. “If we invest in them, it could pay big dividends.”

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