Three Myths of the Unaccompanied Minors Crisis, Debunked

#migration #mineurs #frontière #USA #Etats-Unis

L’Amérique Centrale, cet endroit où la démocratie bien comprise est en pleine expansion...

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How Mexico’s Cartels Are Behind the Border Kid Crisis

Mexico’s drug gangs have taken over the human-trafficking business along the border, and agents suspect they may have a hand in the unprecedented number of underage migrants stagnating in Arizona’s detention centers.

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▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/23/how-mexico-s-cartels-are-behind-the-border-kid-crisis.html

13 facts that help explain America’s child-migrant crisis

The flow of unaccompanied immigrant children across the US-Mexico border — mostly from Central America — is continuing to gain attention as a humanitarian crisis.

So here are 13 things you need to know to get a handle on what is actually going on along the border right now; what process the US has in place to deal with unaccompanied kids; and what the government can do now:

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▻http://www.vox.com/2014/6/16/5813406/explain-child-migrant-crisis-central-america-unaccompanied-children-immigrants-

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Child Detention Centers: A ’Headache’ For The Obama Administration

U.S. officials are detaining thousands of immigrant children who tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border alone. Two journalists discuss conditions at detention centers, and what’s driving the migrants.

▻http://www.npr.org/2014/06/23/324857970/child-detention-centers-a-headache-for-the-obama-administration

US: No Path to Citizenship for Illegal Child Immigrants

The United States is telling Central American parents there is no path to American citizenship for the thousands of unaccompanied children who are entering the U.S. illegally in hopes of escaping poverty and crime in their native lands.

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▻http://www.voanews.com/content/us-no-path-to-citizenship-for-illegal-child-immigrants-/1943193.html

Losing Sleep Over Families in Immigration Detention

There have been a lot of sleepless nights at the Women’s Refugee Commission lately. Despite our best intentions of leaving work at work, our minds have been fixed on the Southern border, where a humanitarian crisis affecting primarily women and children is worsening by the day.

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▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-bran/immigration-detention_b_5509348.html

US plans new Texas holding facility for unaccompanied migrant children

Construction permits reveal plans for four fence-enclosed pods inside corrugated steel warehouse in McAllen

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▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/24/us-plans-texas-holding-facility-unaccompanied-migrant-children?CMP=twt_

#carte #visualisation Map: These Are the Places Central American Child Migrants Are Fleeing

A recently produced infographic from the Department of Homeland Security shows that the majority of unaccompanied children coming to the United States are from some of the most violent and impoverished parts of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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▻http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/06/map-unaccompanied-child-migrants-central-america-honduras

source des données de comparaison 2013/2014, (graph dans vox.com)
▻http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children

In February 2014, WOLA investigators paid a 12-day visit to several points along Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. This visit was part of a larger project, begun in the second half of 2013, to monitor border security conditions, migration trends, and recent policy changes affecting this region.

Staff from WOLA’s Migration and Border Security Program have visited six sectors of Mexico’s 1,969-mile northern border with the United States since 2011, and we have reported from several of them. This is our first report on Mexico’s 714-mile southern border zone. It comes after several months of preparatory research—combing official documents, interviewing officials, and paying site visits—followed by our February research trip.

…

Young people flee to evade gang recruitment or harassment, and some teenagers we interviewed spoke vaguely of fleeing from gang trouble. Business owners, even those in the informal sector, flee extortion. Corrupt security forces’ inability to protect citizens too often leaves them with no choice but to leave.

#usa #enfants #drogues #trafiquants #trafic_humain #cartels #checkpoint #corruption #mafia #crime

#qui_sème…

Sur ▻http://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/migrant-rights/unaccompanied-children une vidéo, disponible en 5 langues et destinée aux enfants, les aide à comprendre comment la commission d’#émigration_américaine se déroule.

Three Myths of the Unaccompanied Minors Crisis, Debunked

On Monday President Obama asked Congress for an emergency $2 billion to address the flows of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minor children arriving at the U.S-Mexico border. Arrivals of children, already estimated at 52,000 this year, are expected to reach a record 90,000. Obama asked for money to fund the addition of immigration judges, detention facilities and enforcement efforts to stem the tides of new arrivals. He also asked that Congress expand Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s powers to allow him to expedite the deportations of youth, many of whom are being held in converted Army bases across the country, the New York Times reported.

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▻http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/07/three_myths_of_the_unaccompanied_minors_crisis.html

“It’s not an immigration issue,” says the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Brané. “It’s a refugee issue.”

“For us to say that that they cannot stay, that we don’t want them because there’s so many is absurd,” says Brané. “Protection standards aren’t about how many people qualify, they’re about whether people need protection or not.”

Mass exodus of migrant children highlights need for regional solution

Stories of gang violence, abuse and persecution told by migrant children fleeing their homes in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico to make the perilous journey through Mexico to the United States have gripped the media this month.

Although these dangers and the children’s desperate search for safety and reunification with their parents in the US have been documented by activists in the region for the better part of the past decade, the dramatic rise in numbers of these children arriving at the US-Mexico border since 2013 has reached crisis proportions.

US government statistics released this month show that from October 2013 and May 2014, the US Border Patrol apprehended more than 47,000 unaccompanied migrant children arriving mostly to Texas and Arizona, culminating in an urgent humanitarian situation, as reception and processing mechanisms were neither adequate nor prepared.

▻http://idcoalition.org/news/regional-need-build-capacity-care-migrant-children

Johnson: Border ’not open’ to undocumented immigrants

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson says the U.S. border is not open to undocumented immigrants and the Obama administration is taking steps to stop the flow of thousands of women and children from Central America.

▻http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/07/jeh-johnson-border-not-open-to-undocumented-immigrants-191580.html

U.S. needs ’to do right’ for immigrant children: official

(Reuters) - A top U.S. official said on Sunday the U.S. border is not open to illegal entry into the country, but acknowledged the government does need to be sensitive to the tens of thousands of migrant children flowing into detention centers.

▻http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140706&t=2&i=921753664&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEA65
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/06/us-usa-immigration-idUSKBN0FB0TO20140706

Etats-Unis : une #campagne_dissuasive contre les migrants mineurs

Les Etats-Unis ont lancé une campagne publicitaire d’un million de dollars destinée à endiguer le flux de migrants et notamment de mineurs en provenance d’Amérique centrale et du Mexique. Une campagne pour dissuader les familles d’envoyer leurs enfants vers les Etats-Unis. Depuis octobre dernier, environ 52 000 enfants, non accompagnés, ont traversé la frontière et se retrouvent dans des centres de rétention surchargés dans des conditions humanitaires déplorables. Les autorités américaines ont également prévenu que les mineurs seraient désormais expulsés eux aussi.

▻http://www.rfi.fr/ameriques/20140708-etats-unis-une-campagne-publicitaire-contre-migrants-mineurs

#publicité #dissuasion

‘Flee or die’: violence drives Central America’s child migrants to US border

Obama heads to Texas as the mirage of an open door on the southern border triggers a political storm in Washington

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Is it fair to send kids before immigration judges without a lawyer?

In a lawsuit seeking to force the government to supply legal counsel for undocumented minors facing deportation, the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups Wednesday filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the federal government of denying the kids due process.

▻http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-aclu-unaccompanied-minors-immigration-20140709-story.html

Statistical Analysis Shows that Violence, Not Deferred Action, Is Behind the Surge of Unaccompanied Children Crossing the Border

A humanitarian refugee situation at the U.S. southern border has been unfolding over the past few years and dramatically intensifying over the past several months, as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children are fleeing their homes in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In search of a safe haven, these children embark on dangerous journeys, arriving in the United States and neighboring countries throughout Central America. Indeed, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, asylum applications from children are up by 712 percent in the neighboring countries of Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Belize. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has argued that “many of the children apprehended at the border are fleeing unspeakable violence in their home countries.”

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White House faces Senate opposition over $3.7bn for child migrant crisis

White House efforts to respond to a wave of child migrants from central America faced growing opposition in Congress on Thursday, as both Democrats and Republicans questioned aspects of the president’s plan to tackle the crisis.

▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/white-house-senate-child-migrant-crisis

The Children of the Drug Wars
A Refugee Crisis, Not an Immigration Crisis

CRISTIAN OMAR REYES, an 11-year-old sixth grader in the neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, tells me he has to get out of Honduras soon — “no matter what.”

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#réfugiés

New Data on Unaccompanied Children
in Immigration Court

The recent surge of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children attempting to enter the country has touched off a heated debate. Some ask whether having Immigration Judges decide the fate of these children only postpones their inevitable deportation since it is alleged that few have any valid claim to remain in the United States. Others hotly dispute this contention.

This special report presents information derived from current and detailed case-by-case Immigration Court records tracing decisions on removal orders sought by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concerning unaccompanied children who have been apprehended by the agency. The data, current through June 30, 2014, was obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act.

The data trace the status of over 100,000 such cases. The information includes every instance over the last decade flagged as a juvenile case currently recorded in EOIR files. In each of these cases, the Department of Homeland Security instituted the action requesting that the court issue an order to deport these children. Because the DHS has authority to screen and then immediately deport unaccompanied Mexican children without any formal hearing, only a small proportion of children from Mexico are referred to the Immigration Court by the DHS. For this reason unaccompanied children who are immediately deported by DHS are not part of the court data examined here. See About the Data for additional details.

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#statistiques #détention #détention_administrative #rétention

America’s child migrant crisis, explained in 2 minutes

Tens of thousands of children from Central America are arriving alone at our border, posing a major challenge to humanitarian systems that have been in place since World War II. Vox immigration reporter Dara Lind explains in two minutes.

▻http://www.vox.com/2014/7/9/5884077/americas-child-migrant-crisis-explained-in-two-minutes

Bell plans to shelter immigration detainees

Nestor Valencia was 4 years old when he boarded a white van filled with piñatas and entered the United States illegally from Mexico.

Now the mayor of Bell, he sees a little of himself in the thousands of children arriving at the U.S. border and entering detention facilities.

Valencia and other officials in the largely immigrant city are now working with the Salvation Army to create a temporary shelter for detainees who were part of a huge surge of Central American children crossing the border.

▻http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-bell-immigration-20140712-story.html#page=1

Believe It or Not, Kids Don’t Get a Lawyer in Immigration Court

“You have the right to an attorney...If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you at no cost."

Everyone’s heard the Miranda rights read on TV cop shows ... or maybe even in real life. The exact wording varies from state to state, but the meaning is always the same: access to a lawyer is a basic right.

Not so in immigration court. Because the legal proceedings are civil, and not criminal, the government is not obligated to provide most defendants with legal counsel. That goes for children, too.

That’s right. Children who enter the country illegally or overstay their visa can be put before a judge for “removal proceedings” — and get deported without ever talking to a lawyer.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hopes to put an end to that. The group filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of eight families where children, ages 10-17, have been left to navigate the immigration system without a government-appointed lawyer. The ACLU hopes the case will serve as a precedent to change the standards of treatment for children in deportation proceedings.

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▻http://fusion.net/justice/story/kids-dont-lawyer-immigration-court-852404

Children trying to sneak into the U.S. aren’t always alone

MEXICO CITY — The “unaccompanied minors” who walked out of the brush on the banks of the Rio Grande and turned themselves into Border Patrol officers last month were not, technically, unaccompanied. In the group of 15 people that we watched that night, about half of them appeared to be adults, including men and a woman carrying a baby, in addition to several children.

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Unaccompanied children cross US border

Thousands of unaccompanied children and mothers with babies are coming crossing the US border from Central America. Once inside the US they turn themselves over to authorities in hopes of getting permission to stay permanently. Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds travelled to Nogales in Arizona where the migrants are being held. Subscribe to our channel ▻http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on Twitter ▻http://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook ▻http://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website ►http://www.aljazeera.com

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XMRYjaboIE

Blowback on the Border: America’s Child Refugee Crisis

After three years of relative silence, the U.S. press has finally “discovered” the crisis of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors piling up on the U.S. border. Although the coverage often began with moving stories of the hardships these young migrants faced, it soon turned ugly. For right-wing pundits and politicians, the “humanitarian crisis” has become a crackdown on kids.

The dominant narrative has been that foolish parents, perhaps duped by scheming criminal bands, are sending hapless children north to take advantage of loopholes in U.S. immigration practices.

This is just plain wrong. On every count.

▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-carlsen/blowback-on-the-border-am_b_5600425.html

Unaccompanied children are the focus of L.A. annual immigrant’s Mass

During Sunday Mass at a sunlit cathedral in downtown Los Angeles, a 22-year-old woman stepped timidly to a podium and began her story.

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“My name is Dunia Cruz,” she said in Spanish. “I came here from Honduras.”

▻http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-immigrants-mass-20140721-story.html

Border crisis: U.S. targets money launderers to track child smugglers

The increasingly costly and divisive border crisis is pushing federal investigators to crack down on money-laundering schemes they say are being used to smuggle thousands of Central American children into the United States.

▻http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-smugglers-money-trail-20140722-story.html

Fewer children arriving at the border unaccompanied, White House says

The number of children arriving at the border unaccompanied has dropped sharply so far this month, according to preliminary data released by the White House.

▻http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-border-children-20140721-story.html

#mineurs_non_accompagnés

Children at the Border

More than 52,000 children have been caught crossing the United States border alone since October — double last year’s number. President Obama has called the surge an “urgent humanitarian situation,” and lawmakers have called for hearings on the crisis.

►http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/15/us/questions-about-the-border-kids.html

Border crisis creates discomfort for state, local politicians over housing children

TUCSON — A governor was moved to tears. A mayor fretted about disease and crime. A city councilman accused the federal government of keeping secrets.

Around the country, in statehouses and mayor’s suites, in city council chambers and local police agencies, the challenge of housing tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American migrant children is forcing an emotional, uncomfortable and politically treacherous conversation on policymakers at every level. In the weeks and months since large numbers of migrant children began showing up in the Rio Grande Valley, federal officials have turned to states as far north as New England and many places in between in the search for places to keep the children while the government figures out whether to unite them with family members in the United States or deport them.

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#USA #migration #Amérique_centrale #Mexique #Etats-Unis

Gangs, guns and Judas Priest: the secret history of a US-inflicted border crisis

Visiting El Salvador over the past year, it was hard not to think the country’s number-one job is standing around outside with a gun. In the region from which child migrants are fleeing to the US, personal security is largely a question of what you can afford to pay. #El_Salvador has, by one estimate, 25,000 private guards in a country with 20,000 police officers. In #Honduras, which boasts the highest murder rate in the world and has seen the largest exodus of young people to the American border this year, guards outnumber cops five to one.

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#gang

Advocates defend law that guarantees most immigrant children a hearing

Several leading immigrant advocacy groups are warning against changes to a law that guarantees immigration hearings for most unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border.

President Obama and members of Congress from both parties have been pushing for an overhaul to the law, which they say is needed to expedite deportations and ease the humanitarian crisis along the nation’s southern frontier.

Opponents of the changes say they would strip vulnerable children of their right to due process, forcing many to return to potentially deadly conditions back home.

▻http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-unaccompanied-minors-border-20140722-story.html

How the war on drugs drives the child migrant crisis

The child migrant crisis has some roots in a seemingly unrelated policy: the war on drugs.

Since October, 52,000 children from outside the country have come to the US without an adult and strained the US immigration system. Many of them are fleeing a rising tide of violence back home in Central America’s Northern Triangle of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Behind that violence is a massive network of criminal organizations that range from elaborate drug cartels to less sophisticated street gangs.

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▻http://www.vox.com/2014/7/23/5925157/drug-war-child-refugee-immigration-crisis
#war_on_drugs

Child Migration Crisis in the United States

The number of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border increased 90 percent between 2013 and 2014, drawing the attention and concern of the U.S. government, media, and public. MPI, which has deep expertise in migration trends and policies in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, is playing a key role explaining the dynamics and trends that have resulted in this spike in child migration. Here, you can find in one place a collection of relevant MPI resources, from analyses of trends and policy developments surrounding this child migration crisis to data and country profiles of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and recent MPI telebriefings and events to discuss the latest developments.

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Which states are housing the young undocumented immigrants — in 3 maps

The influx of unaccompanied and undocumented minors across the southern border of the United States has prompted frustration on Capitol Hill, anger in the Southwest, and empathy from — and problems for --- governors.

Many of the children who have arrived in the United States have been released by the government to sponsors across the country. On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services released data showing precisely where those children were sent.

▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/25/which-states-are-housing-the-young-undocumented-immigrants-in-one-map/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

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#cartographie #visualisation

The New Wave: Forced Displacement Caused by Organized Crime in Central America and Mexico

Forced displacement generated by organized crime is a little-studied and poorly understood phenomenon. Based on field research carried out in 2013, this article redresses this situation by analysing the broad dynamics of an alarming new wave of forced displacement sweeping El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America – and Mexico. It focuses specifically on the role played by three of the main types of organized criminal groups in the region – mara street gangs, Central American drug transporters, and Mexican drug cartels – in provoking this displacement. Structural differences between these groups are shown to influence both the forms of displacement that they produce and the resulting patterns of movement by displaced persons. Consideration is then devoted to the implications for scholarship and humanitarian practice of this new wave of forced displacement generated by organized criminal groups.

▻http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/3/34.short?rss=1