AP
July 4, 2015
At
1-year-old, a wide-eyed, restless Joshua Tinoco faces the prospect of
deportation to his native Honduras, one of tens of thousands of children
who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico
border last year.
While
his teenage mother has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and seek a
green card under a federal program for abused, abandoned and neglected
children, Joshua has been
classified as an enforcement priority by immigration prosecutors, his
lawyer said.
"I
fought so much for him to be here with me and now they yank him from my
hands," said Dunia Bueso, the boy's now-18-year-old mother. "How is the
child going to go there
alone, and with no one to take care of him?"
Today,
like Joshua, many of the children who arrived from Central America
still have cases churning through the immigration courts and don't know
what the outcome will
be. Those fleeing gang violence and domestic strife have applied for
asylum or the government's program for abandoned children and are
waiting for an answer.
Those
who have won the right to stay in the country still face challenges in
reuniting with family they haven't seen in years, attending school in a
foreign language and
coping with the trauma they fled or debts owed to relatives or the
smugglers who brought them.
More
than 57,000 unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras arrived on the border in the last fiscal year, and since then
another 18,000, government
statistics show. Immigration courts have fast-tracked the cases in a
bid to stem a growing backlog.
It's
difficult, however, to know how many are winning; so far, roughly 6,200
of the children who arrived since July have been issued deportation
orders, mostly for failing
to attend court, but as many asylum applications were filed by children
between October and March.
Immigrant
advocates fear too many children are hard-pressed to find lawyers and
say many are bona fide asylum seekers fleeing gang violence and rape.
But border enforcement
supporters doubt those handed deportation orders will be sent home as
the Obama administration would face political backlash from putting
children on a plane, especially when their family is here.
"Once
the kids were let into the United States, the game was up," said Mark
Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies,
which wants more limits
on immigration.
Bueso
and Joshua were both treated as unaccompanied children because she was a
minor when they arrived at the border. Bueso can't believe the United
States would make
her send her son somewhere no one will care for him; Joshua's father is
not involved in his life, she said, and her grandmother is ill.
While
busing through Mexico with her infant son was difficult, Bueso said
things are looking up now that she can stay. She is living with her
uncle in a Los Angeles neighborhood
lined with liquor stores and bail bond businesses, where she is
attending school for the first time since she was 10.
While
obtaining legal status is a huge relief for many of the children, it
doesn't solve all of their problems, especially those still running from
memories of violence.
Elsewhere
in Los Angeles, another teen relishes her newfound safety from the drug
traffickers who abducted her on her way home from school in Guatemala
at age 16, held
her for weeks in the forest and repeatedly raped her until a ransom
secured her release. She now has asylum, but sleeps no more than two
hours at a time each night due to near constant nightmares, making it
difficult to focus in school.
"I remember something, and my dreams kill me," she said. The Associated Press does not name sexual assault victims.
Children
reuniting with family they haven't seen in years may have a hard time
adjusting, as well as those staying with distant relatives or family
friends who expect
them to pay their way. Some teens strike out on their own or may wind
up in a youth shelter.
In
Southern California, Marvin Velasco, now 15, was kicked out of a family
friend's home after the man didn't want to feed him. The Guatemalan
teen, who arrived on the
border last fall after his parents had sent him to work selling clothes
instead of school, sought help from a local church, and a woman there
took him in.
In
Central Florida, many teens have jobs picking oranges and berries in
the fields to cover living costs or pay off smugglers, and few attend
school, said Kira Romero-Craft,
director of the children's legal program at Americans for Immigrant
Justice, a nonprofit immigration law firm.
The
U.S. government agency that screens sponsors before releasing children
to their custody doesn't track how often family relationships break
down. But officials recently
started a hotline for kids to call if they run into trouble or have
nowhere to stay.
Immigration
lawyers say they expect more rulings on children's deportation cases to
start coming this summer and fall. Whether that will translate into
more children returning
to their countries remains unknown.
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officials said they reach out to children with
deportation orders whose cases are considered a priority and encourage
them to follow
the court's instructions, but that only works if they can find them.
So
far this fiscal year, the agency has sent 1,325 unaccompanied children
back to their countries, mostly boys in their mid-late teens, government
statistics show. Most
were in the government's custody since arriving here or asked to go
home, officials said, adding that younger children usually traveled with
a teen parent or elder sibling.
More
than 95 percent of children who arrived on the border last fiscal year
were released to family or other sponsors, according to the Department
of Health and Human
Services.
So
were Joshua and his mother, who were flown to California after a few
weeks at a Texas shelter and released to the custody of an uncle. In
June, the boy's lawyer asked
an immigration judge to put his case on hold, especially since Bueso
can seek a green card for him in a few years.
For
now, Bueso and her uncle must keep going to immigration court hearings
to determine the boy's fate. Joshua, who refused to sit still during his
last court appearance,
has been allowed to stay home.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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