A record number of unaccompanied minors–60,000 by one estimate– will cross the border this year, posing a tremendous challenge for immigration officials. Many of these children are fleeing dangerous conditions in their home countries, as the New York Times reports. While many if not most of these kids have parents in the U.S., if border agents apprehend these minors they are not likely to be reunited with parents who themselves are undocumented. Unfortunately both the children and their parents may believe that the President’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will allow them to stay in the U.S., but they are not eligible to benefit from this program, which applies only to those who arrived prior to June 15, 2012. Instead, they are likely to end up in government detention centers ill-equipped to care for them properly, and face being sent home to their countries of origin. Nor will this group be likely to benefit from any future immigration reform. The delay in resolving immigration threatens to turn this situation into a humanitarian crisis. Immigration reform advocates need to help spread the word to undocumented parents that encouraging their children to cross the border illegally will not reunite them but put their children at even greater risk of being separated permanently.
