Unaccompanied migrant youth in U.S. detention centers rises 50%

By Cindy Chang, Los Angeles Times

October 16, 2012

Gang violence in Central America has led to a startling increase in the number of children who make the dangerous journey across the Mexican border alone in search of asylum in the United States, according to a report by the Women's Refugee Commission, a nonprofit that advocates for displaced women and children.

The number of unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. detention centers grew nearly 50%, from 6,854 in fiscal 2011 to more than 10,000 in the nine-month period ended June 30, according to federal statistics cited in the report, titled "Forced From Home: The Lost Boys and Girls of Central America." With three months left in the latest reporting period, the fiscal 2012 figures are expected to rise further.

Most of the growth came from three countries: El Salvador, with 68% more unaccompanied minors; Guatemala, with 72% more; and Honduras, with the number more than doubling, from 1,201 to 2,477. The number of Mexican children crossing the border alone fell in the same period.

In interviews conducted with 151 children in federal holding facilities, nearly 80% told researchers that violence was the main reason they set out for the U.S. by themselves, traveling with paid guides on buses or chancing the desert trek as stowaways on top of trains.

One 16-year-old from Honduras told the report's authors that he was threatened with physical violence after refusing to be recruited by a gang. He could no longer attend school safely, so he came to the U.S. to continue his studies.

The children travel on their own because their parents are already in the U.S., because they are fleeing domestic violence or because the family cannot undertake the journey together, said advocates who work with them.

"What they said is, 'If I stayed, I definitely would die.' They knew it would be a dangerous journey, but at least there's a chance," said Michelle Brane, director of the Women's Refugee Commission's detention and asylum program.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, were criticized in the report for operating substandard detention facilities. Officials from the two agencies were unavailable for comment.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigration group, blamed the influx of Central American children on a new federal program granting a two-year reprieve from deportation to some young immigrants.

"The Obama administration has made it very clear — if you get your kids to the U.S. and keep them here for a while, they can stay," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the group. "That's the unmistakable message he's sent around the world. Not surprisingly, you have parents who say, 'Let's do that.'"

Other countries are responsible for ensuring the safety of their own citizens, Mehlman added. Asylum should be reserved for a select few cases, or "the potential is you could have billions of people qualifying for political asylum in the U.S."

Most of the young border-crossers will end up going back to the countries they fled, immigrant advocates said.

The children have no right to a court-appointed attorney in asylum proceedings. Even with legal counsel, cases based on the threat of gang violence have proved difficult to win. Most successful cases have involved children who have lost their parents because of abandonment, abuse or neglect, said Judy London, directing attorney of the Immigrants' Rights Project at the pro bono law firm Public Counsel.

"It's all dependent on getting an experienced lawyer," London said. "The vast majority aren't going to get the legal representation they need, or they're going to get it too late."

Emergency "surge" shelters to house young migrants arriving without parents have been built, said the report.

The report likened conditions in the surge facilities, opened after October 2011 by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, to those in an emergency hurricane shelter. The children received basic medical care, four hours of school and some recreation but not the full slate of education and case management offered in regular detention centers.

Because the new centers sprung up so quickly, they often neglected to provide the "Know Your Rights" legal orientations that are standard in detention facilities, leaving the children clueless about their options, the report said.

The massive increase also resulted in detainees spending longer periods in temporary holding cells, nicknamed "freezers" operated by Customs and Border Protection. The children described the cells' conditions to the report's authors as having inadequate food and water and lights on 24 hours a day, and lacking blankets in frigid temperatures, showers and enough room to lie down.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigration-children-20121016,0,6904349.story

Group attacks border fence in protest of border patrol shooting

A group of young people demonstrated on the Rio Grande near the Santa Fe bridge Saturday to protest the fatal shooting Monday of a 15-year-old Juárez boy a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The demonstrators appeared to have crossed the Rio Grande and attacked the international fence on the U.S. side of the border. The demonstrators also cut a hole in the fence.

The protest was staged after the shooting death of Sergio Adrian Hernández Guereca, who was killed by a Border Patrol agent trying to make an arrest during a rock-throwing incident near the Paso del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso.

Officials said the agent was defending himself when he fired his weapon three times. The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation in the case.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15284326?source=most_viewed

Students, families prepare to leave Arizona because of SB 1070

The teacher had a geology question for sixth-graders at Phoenix Collegiate Academy.

She asked Thursday morning if anybody could explain a "divergent boundary," a principle in plate tectonics.

Noemi raised her hand and answered: "It's when two plates move away from each other."

It seemed a fitting description for what is happening in her life.

In the fall, Noemi's friends and classmates will move in one direction and she will move in another.

Noemi was born in Arizona and is a legal resident, but her parents are not. As pressure on illegal immigrants rises, her parents have decided they can't stay in Arizona.

Sometime before school begins again in August, they will move to New Mexico.

The last day of school is typically one of joy. This year is more complicated.

The passage of Senate Bill 1070, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally, has raised anxiety among immigrant families. And, as the school year ends, more children are realizing they won't be coming back.

Moving to Mexico

Francisco's last day in the Creighton School District was Thursday. His last day in the United States will be sometime in late June. His family is moving to Guadalajara, Mexico.

"It's been a sad day," Francisco said. "Last year, the last day of school was fun. Not this year."

Francisco, 12, his older brother and younger sister were born in Phoenix. His brother is finishing his freshman year at Arcadia High School.

The Arizona Republic is not using their last names to protect their identities.

But now, they are moving to where his parents moved from 15 years ago.

"It's hard to say goodbye to people. These are my best friends," Francisco said. "I'm going to be leaving to Mexico. It's a big change, but it's part of life."

'50 families'

Rosemary Agneessens, principal at Creighton Elementary School, has been writing letters of introduction for students like Francisco who may need them at new schools.

"I've got 50 families with a story like that," she said.

Francisco's parents, Juan and Maria, are confident their son will be able to make the adjustments in school. Juan has been using the Internet to check test scores at different schools in Guadalajara.

But they are worried about him leaving his friends. Francisco is a quiet, shy boy. He has two best friends, his classmates Ricardo and Jose.

"They understand, but they are sort of (quiet) like me," Francisco said. "The three of us have been best friends for as long as I can remember."

Juan and Maria are aware of the irony of their decision. They moved to this country, in part, so their children could have a better life. Now, they are taking them from the only country they have ever known.

"But there are not any other options," Maria, crying, said in Spanish. "We came together as a family and talked. And my sons told me they would not want to see me arrested."

Moving out of state

It's hard for a sixth-grader to be stoic when grown-up events like a new state law seem to be taking away your friends.

"I want to tell her mom not to move," Estephania de la Cruz said while hugging Noemi after science class at their south Phoenix charter school. "She's so kind and nice, she's like an angel."

Noemi, her brother and their parents don't want to move, but Noemi's mother, Luz Maria, said the economy and political climate are forcing her.

Both parents fear arrest and deportation.

When business slowed, Luz Maria lost her job at a bakery where she worked for nine years, and her husband's tow-truck business has been waning.

"It's hard right now, and it's going to get worse," Luz Maria said. "It's hard for me, but it's much harder because it affects my children."

Noemi cries every time she talks about leaving Phoenix. She will miss her friends, she said, and her school and her teachers. But mostly her friends.

Today, the last day of school, will be particularly dramatic. "I love my friends. I've been friends with Jacquelin my whole life."

The two of them sat on the floor in the hallway at Phoenix Collegiate Academy.

Jacquelin's mother used to watch Noemi when the girls were just toddlers.

They said they will miss talking. And playing tag. And fixing each other's hair.

"When we were kids, we used to do each other's hair a lot," Jacquelin said. "Now, I won't have anybody to do my hair."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/28/20100528arizona-immigration-law-families-leaving-arizona.html#ixzz0pDs7ZZAU

Schools: Immigrant families leaving Arizona because of new immigration law

Reports are surfacing around the Valley that illegal-immigrant families with school-age children are fleeing Arizona because of a new immigration law.

Some school officials say enough parents and students have told them they plan to leave the state this summer to indicate Hispanic enrollment could drop at some schools. But there's no way to know exactly how many illegal immigrants will depart because schools do not inquire about a student's or a family's legal status.

Many Latino-heavy school districts say the recession already has pushed many of their families out of state to look for work. The passage of Senate Bill 1070, which widens enforcement of immigration law, has tipped the balance for some parents who tried to stick it out.

For schools, the impact could be loss of students and, as a result, loss of state funding and parent support. The state could see savings.

Despite signs of an exodus, the picture remains murky.

Teachers and principals at Alhambra elementary schools in west Phoenix, for example, are saying goodbye to core volunteer parents, who tell them that the new migration law threatens their family stability and that they must leave. The district expects the new law to drive out an extra 200 to 300 students over the summer.

Balsz Elementary District in east Phoenix lost 70 families in the past 30 days, an unprecedented number, officials said.

In contrast, Isaac Elementary District in Phoenix, where 96 percent of its 8,058 students are Latino, lost fewer students than usual after its Christmas break, and its May enrollment grew by 20 students over last year.

At Balsz, a sense of community is fraying. Every morning for the past two years, 20 to 30 parents in orange T-shirts have gathered at designated spots to walk their children to four elementary schools.

The number of those parents, mostly Latino, began to dwindle in January after the migration bill was introduced. By spring, no one was showing up. The district's "Walking School Bus Club" ceased to exist.

Those parents were too fearful to walk the streets, parents and school officials say. Some were busy packing for a move.

"I became their friend, and saying goodbye is never easy," said Rosemarie Garcia, the district's parent liaison and organizer of the walking club.

The impact debate

Driving out illegal immigrants is the stated purpose of Senate Bill 1070. Arizona's immigration law makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

There is no precise count of Arizona schoolchildren who live with families that have one or more undocumented members.

About 170,000 of Arizona's 1 million K-12 students are children of immigrants and include both citizens and non-citizens, according to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center study.

For every net decline of one student, a school loses an average of $4,404 in state money. The total amount of funding for the 170,000 children of immigrants is about $749 million, or 16 percent, of the state's education budget.

Arizona schools Superintendent Tom Horne said he can't predict the impact of the new law on enrollment but expects little.

A sizable loss of undocumented families could reduce crowding in some schools and allow others to combine classrooms and reduce teaching staff, said Matthew Ladner, research director for the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, which has not taken a stance on the law.

"It would actually help the state's balance sheet down the road and would lessen the burden on the general fund," Ladner said.

School officials, however, say that if many immigrant families leave, their schools will suffer.

Losing a share of students does not yield commensurate cost savings for schools, they said. For example, losing 10 students at the third-grade level often won't necessarily save a teacher's salary, and the district must still pay for property maintenance.

Already hit by state budget cuts, schools that lose per-student funding may not be able to pay for manageable class sizes, reading specialists and tutoring.

"When you lose kids, you lose money," Balsz Superintendent Jeffrey Smith said. "It gives you less to work with."

Smith said the only way his district could save money would be to crowd students into four schools and shut down the district's fifth campus.

"It would make us more cost-effective and it would cost less to run them. But I hope that doesn't happen," Smith said.

Another impact is a loss of a sense of community.

Smith talked about the issue while sitting in Brunson-Lee Elementary, which has 435 students.

"This is a walking school," he said. "If this school ever goes down, all these kids would have to be bused farther away.

"So, the parents would be less likely to get to the school to support the school."

What schools say

Although the last day of school is usually joyful, this year, some schools fear what may happen this summer.

Worry has spread through the sprawling, 14,538-student Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix, which has lost about 2.5 percent, or about 363 students, a year since 2008. That's when a new law took effect that made it more difficult for employers to hire undocumented workers and the recession began ripping away jobs in earnest.

Latino students make up 75 percent of Alhambra's enrollment. Before SB 1070 became law, families in which one parent was legal could still survive. But jobs remain tight, and now, any undocumented family member can be deported after getting a traffic ticket.

Volunteers are dwindling, and fewer parents are showing up for parent coaching and teacher meetings, Alhambra Superintendent Jim Rice said. This summer, the district expects to lose twice as many students, Rice added.

"Our children have been here since they were 1 year old or 2 years old, and they are ready to go to high school," he said. "That's what makes it tough."

Other districts are not sure what to expect when school resumes in August.

• Mesa Public Schools, the state's largest unified district, has 67,749 students, and Latino students make up 37.5 percent. It anticipates a decrease of 1,500 students, similar to losses over the past four years. It blames a combination of new immigration laws, including SB 1070, and the recession.

• Paradise Valley Unified District in Phoenix, where nearly a quarter of its 33,431 students are Latino, hasn't seen a large drop in total enrollment.

"A lot of our students go to Mexico for the summer, and we're speculating they may not come back," spokeswoman Judi Willis said. "But we don't know."

• Enrollment at Glendale Union High School District, where about half of its 14,940 students are Latino, has held steady, but the number of students signing up for English-language summer school has fallen. High-school districts are less likely to feel the loss because older kids are more likely to stay behind with friends and relatives, said Craig Pletenik, spokesman for Phoenix Union High School, where more than three-fourths of the district's 25,083 students are Latino. "Our kids are older, and closer to the educational finish line." The district hasn't seen a dip in enrollment.

• Teachers at Deer Valley Unified District report that high-school students worry about the new law because their parents are talking about a possible family move. The district lost 200 students two years ago, mainly because of the employer-sanctions law, spokeswoman Sandi Hicks said.

For now, there is no sign of a big change, Hicks said. "They're in school. They haven't left yet." About 15 percent of Deer Valley's 36,498 students are Latino.

• At Isaac Elementary, district spokesman Abedón Fimbres said the district's enrollment declined for several years, then leveled off and grew slightly this year. He said that because the district has the lowest-cost housing of central-city districts, families have fled to its neighborhoods as they lost jobs and income.

Social impact

Claudia Suriano is sitting with four fellow school volunteers at Brunson-Lee Elementary in Phoenix's Balsz district. She is among three who are leaving the state. Two others say their families are still debating.

Suriano is a Phoenix mother of two whose husband just quit a good job as a roofer after five years.

While he has survived atop Valley houses for five summers, he could not stand the heat of the new immigration law.

"He feels so stressed that he's not a citizen. He feels it's going to catch up to him," said Suriano, 27, who also is undocumented. "He speaks excellent English, but he feels a pressure they're going to find out what his status is here, and it's too great a weight for him."

Suriano's husband has been in New Mexico for two weeks, looking for an apartment and a job. She is packing up their Phoenix apartment. "He tells me over in New Mexico, it is like here when we first came: There is no fear and they treat you like human beings."

She tries to explain to her two children, one of whom is not a citizen, why the family must leave after six years.

"They're just innocent children," she said. "The older one - he's 9 - says, 'Mommy, I have my friends here and my school.' They don't understand what in the world is going on."

Reporter Ronald J. Hansen contributed to this article.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/28/20100528arizona-immigration-law-schools.html