Only six percent of all unaccompanied alien children sent back home from U.S.

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
7/8/2015 (3 years ago)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)

Unaccompanied alien children, those under 18 years of age, have streamed into the United States across the border from Mexico. These children arrive without parents or guardians. Older siblings or slightly older children who look out for them accompany luckier children. Shockingly, among the more than 111,000 unaccompanied alien children who have crossed the U.S. border illegally since October 2011, only about six percent have been deported "to their home country by the federal government, leaving the other 94 percent still in the U.S.," according to CNS News.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "In fiscal year (FY) 2012, ICE transfers of UC to HHS/ORR reached nearly 12, 000," according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Director of Field Operations Philip Miller.

"In FY 2013, that number nearly doubled to 23,000. In FY 2014, DHS transfers of UC to HHS rose to nearly 58,000. As of the end of the third quarter of FY 2015, we have seen a return to more manageable numbers with 18,246 UC transferred to HHS, though this is still high relative to the historic levels we saw prior to FY 2012," according to Miller's written testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week.

"ICE has transferred about 111,250 unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) since the start of fiscal year 2012, which began on Oct. 1, 2011," according to CNS News.

"Since 2012, 7,013 UC have been removed from the United States and returned to their countries of origin," he said. "Of those, 1,682; 2,347; and 601 were repatriated to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, respectively."

According to these statistics, only about six percent have been removed from the United States by the federal government. About 105,000 children remain in the United States.

Chairman Ron Johnson during the meeting focused on unaccompanied children coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The U.S. federal government has issued removal orders for less than six "percent of the total unaccompanied children who have come to the United States illegally since 2009," according to CNS News.

"Since 2009, from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, there have been over 100,000 - 109,000 -- unaccompanied children coming to this country," Johnson said.

"Of the children coming in 2009, we returned about 30 percent. In 2010, we returned about 22 percent. In 2011, we returned about 24 percent. In 2012, 12 percent. In 2013, 6.2 percent. In 2014, 2.7 percent. And as of 2015, about 3.8 percent," he explained.

"So in all, we've returned about 5.7 percent, about 6,248 unaccompanied children, and we've had 109,000 come into this country illegally," Johnson said.

"Is that sending a signal to the people in Central America that as an unaccompanied child, if you come into America, you've got about a 95, 94.3 percent chance of being able to stay? Is that a disincentive for making that trip? Or an incentive for making that trip?" he added. "I would say it's an incentive."

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