At the southern border, tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors are still being handed over to sponsors in the United States.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Texas has released 10,720 unaccompanied minors into the country so far in fiscal year 2024 (since October 1, 2023), compared to 16,394 in the previous fiscal year (October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023).
Although the number of illegal border crossings has decreased in recent months, the number of unaccompanied minors encountered at the southern border is a cause for concern.
Chris Cabrera, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said just because the situation is better than bad doesn’t mean it’s good.
“Especially when you are dealing with unaccompanied minors,” he said. “Most of them are between 7 and 10 years old and it is frightening that a minor is travelling alone through several countries under the care of a smuggler.”
Texas recorded the highest number of unaccompanied children (19,071) handed over to U.S. sponsors in fiscal year 2022. Cabrera said this behavior should not be rewarded.
“That’s not right. You shouldn’t take them to a parent who is already here,” Cabrera said.
The Border Patrol will initially gather information on the children, but after that there are several steps in a process. The children are then handed over to ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services. From there, the children are assigned a chaperone, with whom they both board a plane and fly to wherever the sponsor is located in the United States.
“The scary thing is the vetting and the government, which is not the most efficient facility in the world. A lot of these children are getting lost in the system or being placed with people they shouldn’t be placed with,” Cabrera said.
The number of unaccompanied children who have been placed in the care of sponsors and then lost is reported to be close to 100,000.
