No, it’s not a silly Chistmas-themed tween power flick. “Unaccompanied minor” is the stale legal term for a kid or teen that makes the journey over the border by herself. Or the kid or teen that originally came with a parent but ends up on their own somehow before ICE gets ahold of them. We  “repatriate” about 43,000 such persons every year, and according to this report released by the Center for Public Policy Priorities a couple months ago, these detentions and deportations are not done in such a sane humane manner (freudian slip). This isn’t news, considering previous incidents such as this report of sexual and physical abuse at the Hector Garza Treatment Center, which ironicly is described on the Cornell Companies website as a “center [that] offers specialized treatment for clients who have been victims of sexual and/or physical abuse, domestic violence, aggression and skill streaming”. Still, the details that emerge from the CPPP report are disturbing and infuriating.

The big ‘what the fuck’ that the report is after is that, despite the enormous number of undocumented kids being deported each year, there is very little in the way of protocol of how these situations should be handled, and there is nobody assigned to look out for these kids’ best interests.

In clear violation of international and U.S. child welfare standards, our interviews with the Mexican
and Honduran children uncovered troubling claims of child abuse and maltreatment by U.S. Border
Patrol officers, including:
• Inattention to repeated requests for medical attention;
• No access to water while in the border patrol station;
• Having to sleep on the floor without a blanket in a heavily air conditioned cell;
• Not being given any or enough food;
• Not being allowed to contact family;
• Being struck and knocked down by agents;
• Being handcuffed; and
• Being transported “like dogs,” in kennel like compartments.
The children did not identify the following as maltreatment, which speaks to the children’s inability
to seek protection.

One boy described being locked in bathroom at a border patrol substation for hours until

transferred;
• Several children mentioned being laughed at by the Border Patrol who apprehended them;
• One girl said she was threatened at gun point by Border Patrol; and
• Of the six participants who reported being handcuffed7 only one described the experience as
maltreatment.

And yet!

The removal system holds the individual child responsible for triggering protective services. For
example, children are not systematically assessed by U.S. authorities to detect whether they have
been forced into indentured servitude or trafficked. Thus, it falls to the child alone to make his or her
condition/situation known so that relevant protections (such as the application for protective status
or the attainment of counsel) may be put into place.

The report also found a disregard for the safety of the children upon return, a pretty gaping hole in the planning considering that many unaccompanied minors have traveled to the US because of abusive home conditions or sex trafficking. In addition, many kids are being deported with no one on the other end to take them up, be it a parent who can’t afford to come get them or a consulate that wasn’t informed they were being deported in the first place. I guess US immigration authorities figure that since these kids have been on their own before, they must be tough enough to handle such a frightening situation.

One of the situations described in the report, about a little girl named Carolina from Honduras, is indicative of what is so wrong about the immigration system’s view towards minors:

Carolina is a five-year-old girl from Honduras.52 When she was an infant, Carolina’s mother tried
to cross with her into the United States, and both were caught and ordered deported. Several years
after this initial deportation, Carolina’s mother attempted once again to join her husband in the
United States. This time Carolina and her mother crossed the border separately—
Carolina by bridge with a false guardian and her mother by river—a common strategy for parents of young children,

who wish to protect them from drowning. Both she and her mother were apprehended in the United States and detained separately.

U.S. Immigration authorities realized that Carolina had been ordered removed in the past—as an infant.
Immigration agents consider this previous order of removal to mean that Carolina is ineligible to petition
for legal immigration status or release to family in the United States. Carolina was placed with the
Office of Refugee Resettlement. When or , unaware of Carolina’s previous order of removal, reunified
the child with her family in the United States, ice agents referred to the incident as a “breach of
national security.” Given her age and circumstances, however, Carolina was clearly unable to have willingly
violated U.S. administrative code in either instance of her entering the country. To hold Carolina accountable
for immigration violations is either inconsistent with the U.S. application of the principle of mens rea,
or a violation of the concept that children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents.

As A Child Alone and Without Papers describes a little earlier on, one of the methods of removal for minors is deportation, which carries the same consequences for a child as it does for an adult–the dreaded ten year ban. The expedited removal and lack of legal counsel for undocumented Mexican kids can tear kids who have lived in the US since infancy away from the only family and country they know in an instant:

The lack of legal representation for children who have spent the majority of their lives in the United
States, yet are apprehended and removed without their families to a country they may not remember,
is a particularly compelling tragedy. According to dif (Mexico’s Child Protective Services) representatives,
there has been a recent increase in the incidence of Mexican citizen children who have
grown up in the United States and are removed to Mexico without their families.68 dif staff described
cases involving teenagers initially apprehended by local U.S. law enforcement for non-criminal acts,
such as speeding, then removed once a background check failed to substantiate citizenship. In some
instances, the children were reported to have lived in the United States since infancy and to have been
unaware of their immigration status. These children sometimes have no family in Mexico to receive
them, and are unfamiliar with Mexican culture and sometimes even language. dif child welfare experts
report that such cases are very difficult to serve, and that the children do not integrate well into
Mexican society. Access to counsel potentially could provide options for relief to these children.

While Mexican kids are deported without hardly a chance to say “wait a sec…”, kids from non-neighboring countries, mainly Honduras (from which 80,000 unaccompanied minors attempt to immigrate to the US every year), are detained for extended periods of time. As for the methods of return, it depends on the country, but the conditions are disgusting either way.

Most unaccompanied Mexican children are apprehended near the border and are transported via
Customs and Border Protection land vehicles to the nearest port of entry.
Once the child arrives in Mexico, a representative of the Mexican Consulate assumes custody and
physically escorts the child to the INM office on the Mexican side of the border. In some areas
where the port of entry involves a bridge, children are transported by Border Patrol to the middle
of the bridge. There they are met by a Mexican official and the children are escorted the rest of the
way across the bridge on foot, through traffic and mixed with the general population. Children are
typically escorted by only one official from Mexico. This situation presents a number of risks to the
immediate safety of the children. When U.S. officials release their custody of undocumented children,
they return the child’s personal belongings to them, including their shoelaces and belts, in full view
of the public and potential predators. The children must then make their way through traffic and
crowds, pulling up their pants, putting on their shoes, and carrying all of their valuables, with only
one adult to protect them. While this arrangement may be adequate in cases where a single child is
being returned,75 in many instances the single consular agent is escorting multiple children. We found
no regulations related to the escort-to-child ratio on the part of either U.S. or Mexican authorities.

A representative from the Mexican Consulate awaits the release of a group of unaccompanied children from a
USBP perrera. He stands in the middle of an international bridge, between the two countries.
In interviews with the author, Mexican officials from various agencies expressed extreme concern
for the manner in which the U.S. Border Patrol transports children. Consular officials commonly
referred to the Border Patrol’s trucks, in which children ride in a covered bed, as dog kennels, or perreras.
These trucks are regarded by Mexican officials as unsafe and undignified, an opinion shared
by U.S. advocates for child safety.

There are no seatbelts and little overhead clearance to protect the
child from injury when patrol vehicles are off road or on rough roads. Border Patrol agents ride in
the truck’s cab, leaving girls, boys, and unrelated adults commingled with no supervision.
The fact that the agents ride separately is also significant as regards the conditions of the truck beds,
where the children ride. Beds have separate ventilation systems from the cabs. According to a Border
Patrol supervisor this measure is meant to protect agents from airborne diseases. As a consequence,
drivers are not aware of or affected by the passengers’ conditions. We observed the transport of children
in a Border Patrol truck with no rear functioning air conditioning unit, on a day when the temperature
reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, the cargo or transport compartment, where the children rode,
was caked in mud and smelled strongly of urine and waste. Four girls and a boy traveled inside.

The Honduran children who participated in the study were removed via commercial flights, either
individually or in large groups.77 ice claims to also employ a separate means of transportation that is
far more alarming.78 ice reports that it continues to transport unaccompanied children on Justice
Department, or jpat , flights. ice charters Department of Justice planes to deport mixed populations
of adults of both genders and both immigration and criminal offenders. Individuals returned
via jpat flights are shackled and handcuffed throughout the flight, and are uniformly treated as
criminal offenders in every respect. They wear identification tags on their arms and their personal
belongings are transported in clear garbage bags. The removal of children via jpat chartered deportation
flights is wholly unacceptable in consideration of the vulnerability of children.
The author observed children returned by ice via commercial airlines. Honduran statistics confirm
that many children are returned by this method (See Appendix E – Honduras Statistical Data). However,
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did not provide data to enable confirmation of which
method of transport, commercial or JPAT, is more commonly used for non-neighboring children.

If you are inclined to read all 80 pages of the report, be prepared to shed a few tears. On a positive note, the CPPP does provide many strong recommendations on how the system of detention and repatriation of unaccompanied minors and undocumented children in general can be improved.

• Guaranteed Right to Counsel.
• Oversight by Child Welfare Experts.
• Mandatory Assessment and Planning for Child’s Safe Return.
• Standardized Inter-Agency Data Collection and Sharing.
• Establish Safe Child Escort Protocols.
• Establish and Enforce Safe Transportation Standards.
• Return Children to Port-of-Entry Nearest to Home.
• Commit to protecting unaccompanied children through treaties and legislation.
• Establish Bi-National Standards for Data Collection and Sharing.
• Prioritize Most Common Countries of Origin.

This will take effort and money and cooperation both on the part of US immigration authorities and the child welfare authorities in the sending countries. It’s sick and ridiculous that kicking out the illegals is higher on our priority list than child welfare and actually ending the cycle of migration. Please, send a link to the report, a quick sum up, and a plea to your senator. Especially if you’re in a border state. Suggested phrases include “family values”, “for the children”, “damning report”, etc.

 x-posted to The OBL