Since Obama won't deport children, children now showing up at border

[DigitalDrifter]

Of course most of us saw this coming. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that as soon as you change a policy regarding illegal immigration, that the word would get out and we'd start seeing an impact.
Way to go Obama you dumbass !!




Obama: Children trying to cross border an 'urgent humanitarian' issue

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Obama: Children trying to cross border an 'urgent humanitarian' issue

ALICIA A. CALDWELL and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press

POSTED: * 06/03/2014 09:12:54 AM MDT


President Barack Obama (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP file photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The flood of migrant children trying to cross the Mexican border alone has become an "urgent humanitarian situation" that is likely to cost the government more than $1 billion more than the Obama administration thought.

Late last week, the Obama administration asked Congress for $1.4 billion in extra funding to help house, feed and transport the tens of thousands of children being caught trying to cross the border illegally, and turned to the Defense Department to help temporarily house more than 1,000 of the children.

In a presidential memorandum issued Monday, President Barack Obama described the situation in stark terms and appointed the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, to lead the government's response.

In the past eight months alone, 47,000 children have been apprehended at the southwest border.

Children trying to cross the border alone are not a new phenomenon, and the numbers have been on the rise since 2009. But Obama's director of domestic policy, Cecilia Munoz, said the increase in 2014 is larger than last year and the group also now includes more girls and larger numbers of children younger than 13. The increase appears to have caught the administration by surprise, despite growing increases over the past few years.

"All of these things are contributing to the sense of urgency," Munoz said. "These are children who have gone through a harrowing experience alone. We're providing for their proper care."

The government estimates that as many as 60,000 children, mostly from Central America, could be caught at the border this year. That would be a nearly 10-fold increase since 2011.

Between 2008 and 2011, the number of children landing in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement fluctuated between 6,000 and 7,500 a year. In 2012 border agents apprehended 13,625 unaccompanied children, and that number surged even more - to over 24,000 - last year.

Rampant crime and poverty across Central America and a desire to reunite with parents or other relatives is thought to be driving many of the young immigrants. Migrant kids remain in removal proceedings even after they're reunited with their parents here, though many have been able to win permission from an immigration judge to stay in the U.S.

The growth has surpassed the system's capacity to process and house the children, prompting the government to open an emergency operations center in South Texas to help coordinate the efforts of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Health and Human Services Department. It also turned to the Defense Department for the second time since 2012 to help house children in barracks at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio.

Mark Greenberg, an assistant HHS secretary, said Monday that about 1,000 children were being housed at the Texas base and as many as 600 others could soon be housed at a Navy base in Southern California.

If the latest estimates hold, the government could spend more than $2.28 billion to house, feed and transport the children to shelters or reunite them with relatives already living in the United States. The new estimate is about $1.4 billion more than the government asked for in Obama's budget request sent to Congress earlier this year.

Republican lawmakers suggested Monday that the flood of children at the border was the result of Obama's lax enforcement of immigration laws.

"The recent surge of children and teenagers from Central America showing up at our Southern border is an administration-made disaster," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen said in a scathing order related to migrant smuggling cases that the government was assisting in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the United States by reuniting them with parents or other relatives living in the country illegally.

Obama: Children trying to cross border an 'urgent humanitarian' issue - El Paso Times

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - put `em on birth control so's dey don't be havin' anymore anchor babies...

$350M HHS Grant to House Unaccompanied Illegal Minors Requires Family Planning Services
June 10, 2014 – A $350 million grant opportunity announced Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services to provide shelter for unaccompanied alien children (UAC) requires that “family planning services” be provided and that residential care providers deliver services in a manner that is “sensitive” to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The grant will be issued by HHS through the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The primary function of the Office of Refugee Resettlement/Division of Children’s Services (ORR/DCS) is to provide temporary shelter care and related services to unaccompanied alien children in custody. Unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are defined as minors who have no lawful immigration status in the U.S., who have not reached the age of 18, and for whom there is no parent or legal guardian in the U.S. or no parent or legal guardian in the U.S. is available to provide care and physical custody. While the population of unaccompanied illegal children generally consists of children ages 12 to 17 with males representing a higher percentage of the overall population, “ORR is looking for applicants who can provide services for a diverse population of UAC of all ages and genders as well as pregnant and parenting teens,” the grant said.

Unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are required to receive a complete medical examination that includes screening for infectious disease within 48 hours of admission. They also receive “appropriate immunizations,” emergency health care services, “family planning services,” other routine medical and dental care, prescription drugs, special diets, and mental health intervention as needed. “Residential care providers are required to provide or arrange for the program required services in a manner that is sensitive to the age, culture, religion, dietary needs, native language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other important individual needs of each UAC,” the grant said.

According to the grant description, “shelter care services begin once ORR accepts a UAC for placement and ends when the minor is released from ORR custody, turns 18 years of age, or the minor’s immigration case results in a final disposition of removal from the United States.” Unaccompanied illegal minors are expected to stay in ORR custody for 30-35 days more or less. As CNSNews.com reported, HHS predicted that 60,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children will be caught entering the U.S. this year. That’s an 815 percent increase from the 6,560 unaccompanied young illegals apprehended in 2011.

Shelter facilities usually house between 16 and 200 unaccompanied illegal children depending on state licensing requirements. Group homes usually house between six and 18 children. “Transitional foster care is an initial placement option for UAC under 13 years of age, sibling groups with one sibling under 13 years of age, pregnant or parenting teens, or UAC with special needs,” the grant said. They are placed with state licensed foster families, go to school and still receive “most service components at the care provider site.” “Residential care providers are required to provide proper physical care and shelter for UAC that includes but is not limited to suitable living accommodations (e.g., bed, chair, desk, storage for clothing and other personal items), culturally appropriate meals and snacks, several sets of new clothing, and personal grooming items,” the grant said.

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WH Wants 'Just Over $2 Billion' From Taxpayers to House Children Crossing Into U.S.
June 10, 2014 -- As tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors cross into the United States illegally from Mexico, the Obama administration admits it didn't anticipate how many would come -- and it is asking Congress "for additional (taxpayer) resources to meet this challenge."

"So there is a request to the appropriators for just over $2 billion to support HHS (Health and Human Services) facilities in particular," a senior administration official told reporters on a White House conference call Monday. The administration also is requesting another $160 million in "additional support" for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and immigration agencies. Administration officials, speaking on background, admitted that "there is a lot of conversation" in Central America about the U.S. immigration debate and the Obama administration's DACA policy -- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals," which allows certain minors who were brought to this country as children to avoid deportation. "But it is -- it should be abundantly clear that neither the bill which passed the Senate last year, nor DACA, apply to these kids," the briefer told reporters. "They both have cut-off dates. You had to be in the country before a particular date in order to qualify for any kind of relief. So there is no relief available. These kids are coming and ending up in removal proceedings. And so we're making sure that that point is reinforced."

Three-year-old Perla Calidono, of Copan, Honduras, plays at the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico. She and her mother, 23-year-old Sandra Calidono, are among the families hoping to soon cross illegally into the United States. Like a game of telephone, the word has spread about young children being reunited with parents in the U.S., about mothers being released with their babies. It’s given hope to an unknown number of migrants willing to risk the dangerous crossing _ with their young children _ in order to escape intense poverty and crime at home.

At Monday's briefing, officials said violence in Central America is the main reason why tens of thousands of children are leaving home and coming to the United States, many of them all alone. "Honduras...has the highest murder rate in the world. Guatemala and El Salvador, I think, are fourth and fifth. So these are the countries that these kids are coming from. We haven't seen large numbers from Nicaragua, for example, or Costa Rica or some of the other Central American countries. And if it was coming -- they were coming solely because of immigration policies, we would see then also large numbers of kids from other countries and principally Mexico as well."

The White House says it will continue to work with Central American countries "to disrupt and dismantle the smuggling networks." "We're also ... conducting public messaging campaigns, some in Mexico, but certainly especially in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, to educate and inform individuals about the dangers of crossing, and ...making clear that migrants are not eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or as part of pending legislation."

The Department of Health and Human Services is supposed to take custody of the children within 72 hours of their apprehension by Border Patrol agents, but the administration admits it often takes longer than that. "You are correct that at the moment we are not succeeding in getting every child transferred within 72 hours," a senior administration official told one reporter. The White House says in the meantime, it is "trying to provide hot meals for the children, shower facilities for the children, all kinds of other things to make their lives there as comfortable as possible, but with the ultimate goal of trying to move the children as quickly as possible to much better facilities -- facilities that are meant to house people for longer periods of time than the current CBP holding rooms."

Senior administration officials say all of the illegal aliens face "removal proceedings," but while they wait for a deportation order, many will be released to relatives in this country or put in foster care. "So HHS is not sort of warehousing these children indefinitely. They are providing appropriate care while placement takes place," the official said.

WH Wants 'Just Over $2 Billion' From Taxpayers to House Children Crossing Into U.S. | CNS News