Report: No One Protects Migrant Children At The Border

The Texas Observer published a story this week about the plight of migrant children on the border. A report released by the nonprofit Appleseed and its network of public justice centers details the failure of both the U.S. and Mexico to protect the most vulnerable migrants: unaccompanied minors. From the article:

At least 15,000 unaccompanied children are apprehended every year by U.S. border agents. In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a law called the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act, mandating that every Mexican child who crossed illegally without  a parent be interview by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The agents were tasked with looking for three things: 1) The child is not a potential victim of trafficking, 2) Has no possible claim to asylum and 3) Can and does voluntarily agree to return home.

The two-year study finds, however, that border agents are not fulfilling these duties. And it describes in detail how children at the U.S.-Mexico border are being sent back to Mexico with little regard for their well being or whether they have a credible asylum claim in the United States.

Read the rest of the article at the Texas Observer.

Appleseed report: Children at the Border: The Screening, Protection and Repatriation of Unaccompanied Mexican Minors

Learn more: What becomes of kids who are deported without their families?