How many unaccompanied migrant children have come to New Jersey?

Recent reports that the U.S. government had lost track of 1,475 unaccompanied children whom it had placed with sponsors in the United States sparked outrage from immigrants and their supporters. 

Those reports have continued to draw ire from critics in the wake of the Justice Department’s decision to begin prosecuting parents who are caught entering the United States illegally with their children, and then separating youngsters from them. 

But the children the government officials said they could not locate had not been taken from their parents but rather had entered the United States alone. Most were sent to live with relatives in the United States upon their arrival. The children who have been deemed to be unaccounted for were those whose relatives, or sponsors, did not answer when the Health and Human Services Department called to check in on them.  

“Many sponsors do not respond to federal contacts because they are here illegally themselves — often thanks to ‘catch and release,’ which permits illegal aliens to be released from detention on the assumption they will comply with future court summons,” Eric Hargan, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote in a letter to the editor published by USA Today. 

More than 7,000 unaccompanied children have been sent to live with relatives in New Jersey since October 2014, according to figures from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that is tasked with the care of immigrant children who arrive in the United States alone. From October through April, 1,053 children have been sent to the Garden State, with Union, Bergen and Hudson counties accepting the most so far this year.

 

Unaccompanied migrant children in New Jersey

From October through April, 1,053 children who came to the United States illegally unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. Here is where they ended up:

Union County  244

Bergen            141

Hudson            129

Mercer             106

Essex               93

Morris               64

Middlesex        62

Source: The Office of Refugee Resettlement

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said that approximately 90 percent of the sponsors who have accepted the children are parents or close relatives, and that historically the office does not track children once they are released. During one recent period, 14 percent of sponsors didn’t respond to calls. 

Illegal crossings at the border fell last year but have risen in recent months to the highest level since President Trump took office. Border patrol officers continue to taken thousands of unaccompanied minor children into custody; more than 19,600 have been detained since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, with more than 1,000 of them now living in New Jersey.  

The children are given court dates when they must appear before an immigration judge.

Some unaccompanied minors who entered in 2013, when an unprecedented number of children from Central America reached the border, are still in the process of seeking asylum and other forms of relief. Some have won asylum cases while many others were ordered deported in absentia, according to federal statistics. 

Were unaccompanied minors taken from parents?

No. The Trump administration’s latest immigration policy calls for children to be separated from parents who arrive at the border seeking asylum. That policy has fueled rallies and a national movement on social media, with the hashtags #FamiliesBelongTogether’ and #WhereAretheChildren. 

Children who are separated from their parents at the border are placed in shelters run by federal authorities. Earlier this month, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., blasted the Department of Homeland Security in a letter for denying members of his staff access to an immigration port in California where he said families entering country were being separated. 

Who are the unaccompanied children?

The majority of the unaccompanied children come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of children 14 years old and younger who have reached the border, as well as an increase in the number of girls, including teenage mothers with infants.

What leads children to come alone?

Many minors are fleeing gangs and violence. Honduras has been plagued by violence for years, and more recently has been consumed by political turmoil. Some of the children and teens have left home to join a parent who has been living in the United States for years.

In 2013, as such illegal crossings surged, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found that at least 60 percent of the children presented claims that could qualify them as refugees.

Those fleeing Central America seeking help not only in the United States, but also in other countries as well. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, asylum requests from Honduran, El Salvadoran and Guatemalan citizens have increased since 2009 in neighboring countries, including in Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize.

 

 

 

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