COMMITTEE: International Organization
for Migration (IOM)
TOPIC: Protection of Underage
Illegal Immigrants
ROOM: 108
CHAIR: Vancini
Berra Mayte y Parra Villalón Juan Pablo
On America’s southern border, officials have watched for the past few years as a trickle of children crossing the Rio Grande illegally without their parents has turned into a veritable flood. The issue has triggered a crisis, as Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson had to issue an emergency alert this month establishing a shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas to house the thousands of youths entering each week.
Thousands of children alone make the more than 1,000-mile journey from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border to escape intensifying violence in their home countries. The journey is so dangerous, that kids as young as toddlers and as old as teens are being raped and murdered on the treacherous trek north through Mexico.
The phenomenon has completely overwhelmed federal resources in a matter of weeks, turning Border Patrol offices into day cares and military barracks into youth dormitories. The Health and Human Services Department struggles to keep up with the demands for its foster care, often leaving the kids stuck in detention facilities designed for adults.
Already, the problem is growing faster than responders can handle. In fiscal 2011, HHS estimated that some 6,500 unaccompanied minors entered the United States. By fiscal 2014, that estimate has jumped ninefold, to roughly 60,000. And outside experts project the number could surge to 130,000 over the coming fiscal year.
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