"Children Fleeing Violence Should Be Able to Get Help From US"
"In June 2014, President Obama declared an "urgent humanitarian situation." Thousands of unaccompanied children—defined as children under 18 who lack lawful status in the United States and enter the country without a parent or legal guardian—were entering the United States in order to escape devastating conditions in their home countries. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), by the end of fiscal year 2014, 68,541 unaccompanied children were detained by immigration officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. The vast majority of these children were from one of three countries: El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala—an area known as the Northern Triangle. Two years later, the urgent humanitarian situation continues. From Oct. 1, 2015 through June 30, there were 43,280 unaccompanied children detained at the border. That number represents a 62 percent increase from the same period in fiscal year 2015.
The children are fleeing pervasive crime and gang violence that has left the Northern Triangle in shambles. Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are three of the most dangerous countries in the world. According to the U.S. Department of State, "the current murder rate [in El Salvador] is an annual rate of 103.1 murders per 100,000 citizens for 2015. In comparison, the U.S. rate is 4.5 per 100,000." According to the Center for American Progress, citizens of the Northern Triangle pay more than $651 million a year to gangs who threaten them with violence and death if they do not pay for protection. UNHCR reports that asylum application in Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Nicaragua have increased 1179 percent from 2008 to 2014. Nearly 9 percent of the Northern Triangle population has migrated in recent years."
Read the full story by NSC Fellow Jackie Rodriguez in The Legal Intelligencer.
