Introduction
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created on 25th November 2002 by the USA Federal Government. The role of the department is to increase the security and safety of USA homeland. Hence, it safeguards the Americans from activities related to terrorism and the threats of illegal immigration. The USA Customs and Protection (CBP) is under pressure to deal with the multifaceted security and humanitarian challenges because thousands of unaccompanied children arrive at the country’s borders. Specifically, the agency faces a challenge of caring and handling the children. This case study reviews the issue offer border control because it is a current homeland security issue that has an indelible impact on the USA. Specifically, it discusses the humanitarian challenges posed by the unaccompanied children that arrive at USA’s borders.
The issue of unaccompanied minors
Most of the children that are fleeing to the USA require international protection, and they qualify for humanitarian relief. The UNHCR conducted a survey, and it included 404 unaccompanied children from Guatemala, Mexico Honduras, and El Salvador. The results indicated that 58% of the children had been displaced forcefully because they faced harms or suffered and this indicated that they required international protection (Seghetti, Siskin & Wasem, 2014). Notably, 72% of the minors from El Salvador, 57% from Honduras and 38% from Guatemala merited protection (Seghetti, Siskin & Wasem, 2014). The process of establishing whether the unaccompanied minors qualify for protection is time-consuming (Seghetti, Siskin & Wasem, 2014).
The unaccompanied children qualify for four major reliefs namely Asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, U visas and T visas. Asylum is granted to the refugees in the USA and individuals granted asylum must demonstrate that they are vulnerable to persecution in their home countries because of the race, affiliation to particular social groups, nationality, political opinion, and nationality. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is meant for minors who may be abandoned or neglected or abused by parents. Beneficiaries of SIJS must below 21 years, unmarried and subject to dependency. On the other hand, U visas are granted to victims of particular crimes. Beneficiaries must demonstrate that have suffered mental or physical abuse, and they must have helped the law enforcers to investigate or prosecute crime. Finally, T visas are issued to victims who are vulnerable to severe tracking if they are removed from the USA (Greenblatt, 2014).
Mexico deported children from Central American that were traveling since 2015 fall, and this played a significant role in reducing the number of unaccompanied minors. The deportation of 3,819 unaccompanied children from Central America during the first five months of 2015 represent a 56% increase from during the same period in 2014 (Stinchcomb & Hershberg, 2014). In addition to that, 12,509 children were apprehended by the USA officials in the fiscal year that commenced in October 2015, and this was a decline compared to the 21,403 that were apprehended in 2014 over the same period (Stinchcomb & Hershberg, 2014).The Mexican data shows that the numbers of unaccompanied minors have reduced. Further, a large share of the deportations is made up of the Guatemalan children. The figure below shows the proportion of unaccompanied minors that were deported by Mexico in the fiscal year that commenced in October according to the country of origin (Saffren, 2014).
Figure 1: The proportions of unaccompanied children deported by Mexico.
Source: (Gonzalez-Barrera, Krogstad, Gonzalez-Barrera & Krogstad, 2015)
The USA officials noted in September 2015 that there was a dramatic increase in the number of the unaccompanied children that were crossing the USA-Mexico border and this presented worries of new refugee influx in the USA (Saffren, 2014). The increased number of crossings in September was usual because during such times the undocumented immigrants are scared of hot temperatures. The USA Customs and Border Protection agency experienced an increase in the number of undocumented children in July 2015(Redmon, 2014). The apprehensions of the Minor unaccompanied immigrants are provided in the figure below.
Figure 2: Apprehensions of the Unaccompanied Minor Immigrants
Source: (migrationpolicy.org, 2015)
There are structural pull and push structures that have contributed to the surge of the unaccompanied minors in the USA. The children desire to escape the poor economic conditions and the violence in their home countries whereas others aim at reconnecting with members of the families that are residing in the USA (Redmon, 2014).It is imperative to note that the surge of unaccompanied minors in the USA as from 2011 to 2014 posed a hard policy challenge on the USA. There was a high volume of children that were moving to the USA for various reasons, and they were subject to various legal responses. According to the International and the USA law, the USA has an obligation to safeguard the children facing persecution and difficulties in their home countries. However, the USA must safeguard its citizens by maintaining border controls and denying entry to the illegal immigrants that do not meet the requirements of being issued humanitarian protection and political asylum (Clements, 2015).
It has been problematic to revise the policy goals that govern the borders because the motives of the immigrants are complex. It is difficult to document the undocumented kids with genuine needs and those who may not be eligible for relief. Accordingly, the fundamental challenge facing the border control policy revolves around protecting the vulnerable populations and at the same time restricting the admission of individuals whose claims for humanitarian protection are not valid (Gonzalez-Barrera et al., 2015).
Other than the complexity of migration flows, the politics of USA's border control policy place a significant a premium on the enforcement of immigration laws. The tension that is evident in prevention and protection ought to be understood according to the current context to eliminating illegal immigration into the USA through the Southwest border (Gonzalez-Barrera et al., 2015). The USA has been engaging in sustained efforts to enforce immigration policies and to strengthen the security of its borders as evidenced in the budget allocations for the border controls. After thirty years of concerted efforts to stop illegal movements across the Southwest border, most of the Americans and the policymakers are inclined to consider strongly the border flows through the lens of enforcement instead of the humanitarian lens. As a result of the increased number of unaccompanied minors in 2014, the policy makers criticized the government for enforcing weak border control practices and emphasized that it was a sign of laxity on the government's side (Migrationpolicy.org, 2015). The mixed flows of immigrants call for different responses that ensure that individuals with genuine claims are protected and denying claims to the unqualified individuals. It has been difficult to enforce the border control because the unauthorized immigrants compete unfairly with the genuine refugees (Seghetti, Siskin & Wasem, 2014).
Consequently, the failures in enforcement are likely to create a vicious cycle of illegal immigration of the undocumented children, and this may strain the system further. In the end, the fail to stop the "regular" authorized immigration of the undocumented minors jeopardizes the protection of the kids that need the protection and undermines the nation's support for the generation protection of border control policies (Seghetti, Siskin & Wasem, 2014). In May 2014 the policy makers in the USA from both sides agreed that the arrivals of unaccompanied child immigrants was a crisis, they disagreed on how the crisis would be responded to, though. President Obama submitted a $3.7 billion request to the Congress to offer emergency appropriations to the detention facilities that were holding the children and the families. The funds were meant to finance the DHS enforcement operations and the adjudication services as well. However, the Congress did not approve the funding hence the nation's response to the crisis was limited the existing budget. Evidently, the challenges of the immigrant children impacted on the politics and policies of the USA because there were disagreements on how the situation should be handled (Greenblatt, 2014).
The tension between preventing illegal immigration and protecting the unaccompanied minors
As from 2011 to 2014, there was a rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied minors that arrived at the USA-Mexico border. Despite the fact that most of the migrants had valid claims to seek asylum most of them were driven by the urge to connect with their family members in the north and economic concerns. The increased number of unaccompanied children has challenged the USA's capacity to focus on the core immigration functions which require it to prevent the admission of immigrants and at the same time offer protection to the kids that cannot be repatriated safely to their countries (Greenblatt, 2014).
The media coverage of the children's arrivals portrays their entry into the USA as a loophole in border security. However, the real policy failures stem from the adjudication and processing of the relief claims from children, and this presents a mixed flow of the irregular and humanitarian migrants. The insufficient legal and judicial resources have left the unaccompanied minors waiting for more than two years to face the immigration judge. The delays have led to a de facto policy that allows open admission of the minors and their families (Stinchcomb & Hershberg, 2014).
It is noteworthy that the response of Obama's administration to the issue regarding great law enforcement, the creation of family and child immigration court dockets and the expanded detention facilities focuses on the immediate needs instead of long term solutions. Accordingly, the responses from the government have failed to offer adequate protection to the vulnerable immigrants, and they do not prevent illegal and unauthorized immigrations in future (Saffren, 2014).
Strategies of dealing with the issue
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHH) and DHS are collaborating with the Department of Defense with the aim of housing and caring for the children. The federal partners have contributed facilities that required in catering for the children. Further, Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of DHS announced on 1st July that an additional 150 border control agents could be deployed at Rio Grande Valley, Texas because most of the unaccompanied minors are arriving there. The additional personnel will be instrumental in upholding CBP’s mandate of securing the border and processing the influx of minors (Redmon, 2014).
The CBP employees have been trained to respond with compassion and professionalism when handling and rescuing the children. They all dedicated to giving the best to them. In addition to that, the White House and the State Department have been collaborating with the governments of Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras in a bid to improve the scenarios in Central America that have spurred the immigration. Moreover, the collaboration aims at repatriating the children securely to their families (Clements, 2015). Immigration judges have been sent to the borders with the aim of expediting the removal proceedings of the unaccompanied minors. The USA government has tried its best to send a clear message on immigration to the immigrants and the individuals that intend to immigrate to the USA. Specifically, the government emphasizes that illegal immigration cannot guarantee citizenship, and it exposes one to danger (Migrationpolicy.org, 2015).
A multimedia public awareness campaign has been developed by CBP, and it communicates the challenges of the journey to the minors and families that are planning to undertake it. The message that is emphasized in the campaign explains that the journey is dangerous, the kids will not be given legal papers after making it to the north, and it emphasize that the children should be protected because they are the future (Migrationpolicy.org, 2015).
Conclusion
The paper has discussed the border issue relating to the unaccompanied minors in the USA. Three-quarters of the children originate from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and they travel for days through Mexico. The children are usually scared, exhausted and hungry thus; CBP has collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security to address the issue in a manner that is consistent with the American laws and values. The USA government's response to the unaccompanied minor immigrants has created numerous political and policy challenges in the USA, and this has, in turn, has made it hard to craft policies that are compassionate and effective. All in all, USA mandate of implementing the major immigration functions has been challenged by the high number of unaccompanied minors that arrive at its borders every year.
References
References
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