Border security: Key questions answered
By Peter Sullivan – 06/29/14 02:30 PM EDT
A surge of children crossing the southern border and entering the United States illegally has become a political crisis. House Republicans hammered the White House on the issue in recent days while the administration countered by highlighting how it has responded.
But what’s really going on?
1. How big is the surge?
52,193 unaccompanied children, defined as those under the age of 18, were apprehended crossing the southern border of the United States from Oct. 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014. That’s about double the 26,206 who were caught in the same timeframe the previous year.
In addition, 39,000 adults with children have been apprehended during that time period, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
2. Where are the children coming from?
About three-quarters of the children come from just three countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The increase in unaccompanied children from those nations began in the 2012 fiscal year and has accelerated since then, according to DHS data. There are about ten times as many children from those countries crossing the border as there were in fiscal year 2011. Meanwhile, the numbers from other Central American countries have remained steady. The number of children arriving illegally from Mexico actually declined in the most recent fiscal year.
3. What are the root causes?
There are several, but strife in those three countries, together with untrue rumors of “permisos” allowing children to stay in the United States, play a key part.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/210884-border-crisis-five-key-questions-answered#ixzz364x7gwUE