The statistics are staggering. Meer as 400,000 migrant children have crossed the US border without their parents since 2003.
And each time a new wave arrives, political controversy follows.
The numbers are on the rise weer, with some children arriving who are as young or 6 of 7. This increase is sparking fierce debate in Washington, concern from children’s advocates en an emergency response from the Biden administration.
Why have so many kids made this dangerous journey? And what happens to them once they reach the United States?
Here are some of the key things we know.
They’re fleeing desperate conditions
Daar is many different reasons migrant children travel alone to the United States. CNN’s years of reporting at the border and conversations with experts reveal a common thread: It’s not a decision any family makes lightly.
Many of these children, who the government dubs “minderjariges sonder begeleiding,” make asylum claims when they arrive because they’re fleeing persecution, gang violence and other forms of organized crime. Dire economic circumstances in their home countries may also contribute to their decisions to leave.
Some parents initially make the journey with their children, buoyed by misleading statements smugglers use to entice them on the trek. But families sometimes find themselves making different decisions once they reach northern Mexico and come to understand the realities of the border.
In 2019, byvoorbeeld, some parents started sending children alone across the border once they realized the US government was sending families back to Mexico but not kids traveling alone.
And those harrowing decisions are happening again, Hope Border Institute Deputy Director Marisa Limón Garza told CNN this week.
“This comes with great sacrifice. I don’t think it’s lost on any of these parents,” sy het gese. “This is a grim choice.”
Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Migrant children from Central America sit in the back of a US Border Patrol vehicle as they wait to be transported on March 14. They had just crossed the Rio Grande on a raft, traveling from Mexico into Penitas, Texas. Pictured in the front row are Yoandri, 4; Michael, 5; and Yojanlee, 2, all from Honduras.
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This aerial photo, taken on March 15, shows a temporary processing center set up by US Customs and Border Protection in Donna, Texas. Lawyers who recently spoke with children at the facility say they’re terrified, crying and worried about not being able to call their parents.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Yaretsi, a 4-year-old from Honduras, sits on the lap of her mother, Angie, while looking out the window of a US Border Patrol vehicle on March 15. They had just crossed the Rio Grande on a raft.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Migrant mothers from Central America hold their children as they await transport after crossing from Mexico into La Joya, Texas, op Maart 14.
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Migrant families and unaccompanied minors from Central America take refuge in a makeshift processing center under the Anzalduas International Bridge in Granjeno, Texas, op Maart 12.
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Migrants from Central America await transport in Penitas, Texas, op Maart 12.
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Unaccompanied minors are transported in a US Border Patrol vehicle after they crossed the Rio Grande into the United States. Officials say the number of unaccompanied minors in the agency’s custody has reached a record high.
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Smugglers use a raft to transport migrant families and children across the Rio Grande into Texas on March 6.
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Migrant families and children sit in the back of a police truck after they crossed the Rio Grande on March 5.
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Migrants climb the banks of the Rio Grande into the United States as smugglers on rafts prepare to return to Mexico on March 5.
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Maria, a 4-year-old from El Salvador, is held by her mother, Loudi, after they crossed the Rio Grande on March 5.
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A child looks out from a tent in Tijuana, Mexiko, op Februarie 27. He’s camped next to other migrants from Central America who are hoping to cross the border and request asylum in the United States.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Migrants from the Matamoros camp in Mexico arrive to cross the border bridge into the United States on Febuary 26. The camp recently emptied out after the Biden administration ended the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced many to wait in Mexico while their immigration cases made their way through US courts.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
A US Border Patrol agent delivers a young asylum seeker and his family to a bus station in Brownsville, Texas, op Februarie 26. US immigration authorities are now releasing many asylum-seeking families after detaining them while crossing the US-Mexico border. The immigrant families are free to travel throughout the US while awaiting asylum hearings.
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A US Customs and Border Protection officer checks for the name of a migrant as a group of at least 25 asylum seekers were allowed to travel from a migrant camp in Mexico into the United States on February 25. The group was the first allowed to cross into south Texas as part of the unwinding of the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols. Many of the asylum seekers had been waiting in a squalid camp alongside the Rio Grande for more than a year.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Emma Moreno, reg, a volunteer working at the Agape shelter in Tijuana, helps an asylum seeker check the “Conecta” website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Conecta” allows asylum seekers who’ve been stuck in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols to enter the United States and wait there for their asylum process. On the first day of the rollout, the website quickly became oversaturated as the estimated 25,000 people in the program attempted to register.
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A migrant girl from Brazil who’s seeking asylum in the United States sits on a bench inside a shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexiko, op Februarie 19.
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Foto's: This is what we’re seeing at the border
Asylum seekers wait outside the El Chaparral border crossing port as they wait to cross into the United States from Tijuana on February 19. The Biden administration is still turning back most migrants at the border, but officials are gradually allowing 25,000 people previously enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols program to cross into the United States.
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Migrants seeking asylum in the United States carry empty water jugs at a camp in Matamoros, Mexiko, op Februarie 18.
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Migrants cross the Rio Bravo to get to El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexiko, op Februarie 5.
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Teddy bears belonging to migrant girls are seen in the Rio Bravo on February 5 after the girls requested asylum in El Paso.
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Many already have family members living in the United States
Children who cross the border alone are first held in Customs and Border Protection custody, then transferred to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services, where they’re held until they’re released to sponsors in the United States.
“The vast majority of sponsors are a parent or a close family relative living in the United States,” HHS says.
Met ander woorde, most of the unaccompanied minors who come to the United States already have a family member living here. En, as the Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2016 verslag doen, “the desire to reunify remains strong.”
If they make it across the border, the odds may be in their favor
Department of Homeland Security statistics show that the vast majority of children who’ve come alone to the United States from Central America — and other regions that don’t neighbor the United States — are still here.
Van die 290,000 children in this group who crossed the border without a parent since 2014, 4.3% were returned to their home countries, en 28% were granted protection by US courts.
What about the others? As of December 2020, 68% of their cases remained unresolved — 16% had been ordered to leave, but hadn’t been deported or confirmed their departure yet, en 52% of their cases were still being processed.
But it’s important to note that statistics like this can be misleading, because they show a snapshot of how a large number of cases have been handled so far, but not the whole picture. Children’s immigration cases can take much longer than adults’ gevalle, due to special provisions and protections in place en 'n extremely backlogged court system.
There’s also a significant differences in outcomes if children have legal representation. And just because a case hasn’t resulted in deportation yet doesn’t mean that it eventually won’t.
Changing policies are giving them a chance — vir nou
So why are we seeing another surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border now? Daar is many contributing factors at play in migrants’ home countries — and also a big change the Biden administration made.
Officials recently ended a controversial Trump administration policy that was put in place during the pandemic. That policy, which cited public health concerns, allowed the US government to kick out children who came to the border without giving them a chance to seek asylum. Critics said it flew in the face of international law and human rights norms, and endangered the lives of children seeking safety.
The Biden administration has stressed that the border isn’t open, and officials have pledged to turn back most adults and families who cross. But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the cases of unaccompanied minors are different,
“They are vulnerable children,” he said this week, “and we have ended the prior administration’s practice of expelling them.”
That means children who’ve crossed the border alone will have a chance to make asylum claims once again. But the outcomes could be different than previous groups faced.
The Biden administration says it’s working on overhauling the system with an eye towards efficiency. If they succeed, we could see an end to lengthy waits for answers that have let many children stay in the United States for years while their cases made their way through the courts.
