OXFORD, Ohio — An unfortunate spike in drug related violence throughout Central America alongside rampant poverty has contributed to an ongoing humanitarian crisis on the Southern border of the United States. Border Patrol agents have already apprehended 48,000 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua along the border this year.
The numbers of young people crossing over the Mexican border into the U.S. have doubled over the past year. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson recently reported to Congress that “the numbers are rising…Undeniably, there is a problem of humanitarian proportions.”
The problem is illustrated by the hundreds of unaccompanied children that have been sleeping on plastic boards in a Border Patrol warehouse in Arizona. President Obama appointed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to lead the response to the crisis in the first week of June. The administration has requested a sum of $1.4 billion to feed, shelter and transport the border children; mattresses, toothbrushes, toothpaste and portable showers are being shipped to military bases in California, Texas and Oklahoma, where the children will be hosted temporarily.
This surge of unaccompanied minors is due to several interacting factors. Many of the unaccompanied youths braving the voyage through Mexico and across the U.S. border are seeking to reunite with parents who are already living in the U.S. illegally.
Drugs, violence and economic hardship have caused enough turmoil in Central America to uproot families and set them in search of stability elsewhere, as 75 percent of migrants apprehended in southern Texas come from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. This situation is daunting for border authorities, whereas apprehended Mexicans can be bussed back across the border at the nearest point, migrants from Central America must be transported back to their home countries on U.S. government flights.
Additionally, some parents send their children to the U.S. on rumors that minors entering the country before the end of the year will be allowed to remain indefinitely, or even permanently, in the US. The current administration is seeking to dispel this myth, asserting that these children do not qualify for Obama’s deferred deportation program or for residency status.
In an effort to stem the flow of unaccompanied minors from Central American countries, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden made a stop in Guatemala on his mid-June tour of Latin America. After enjoying the U.S.- Ghana World Cup match in Brazil and traveling to Colombia and the Dominican Republic, Biden scheduled a meeting in Guatemala with the Presidents of Guatemala and El Salvador, as well as a top Honduran official, to discuss the crisis festering on the country’s southernmost border.
A senior official accompanying Biden on the Latin American tour stated that “Our top priority is to manage this urgent humanitarian situation…The entire U.S. administration is engaged in addressing the situation, in making sure these children are housed and fed and receive medical treatment, but at the same time we also realize the crucial importance of stemming the tide of migration.”
The increase in young, unaccompanied individuals from Central America making the rough journey northward is troubling from a political and humanitarian standpoint. There is no easy answer to the plight of these border children. Yet an important first step has been made in acknowledging their presence and in arranging for temporary accommodation.
Sources: Politico, The Republic, The Public Opinion
Sources: Cross Connection