New migrant children lack US legal status, says official

WASHINGTON - The thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who have journeyed to the United States in recent months have no guarantees of citizenship or legal status, and are prioritized for deportation, officials said Thursday.
 
Three out of four minors who illegally cross the border into the United States come from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
 
The children make the grueling journey of hundreds of miles (kilometers) through Mexico to escape the dire economic conditions and violence in their home countries, and to join relatives in the United States.
 
"I am not encouraging in any way, shape or form illegal migration. That's the message," US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told reporters.
 
"Those who cross our borders today illegally, including children, are not eligible for an earned path to citizenship."
 
An immigration reform bill currently before Congress that has cleared the Senate aims to further secure US borders, reform visa procedures and offer an eventual path to citizenship to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in limbo.
 
In recent months, a surge of unaccompanied children has flooded the southwestern US border.
 
From October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013, US authorities identified nearly 24,500 children who had entered the country illegally without the company of an adult.
 
But that figure doubled to more than 47,000 children between October and May, in what President Barack Obama and leading lawmakers have termed a humanitarian crisis.
 
US officials expect that figure to reach 60,000 this year, said Mark Greenberg, acting assistant secretary for the administration of children and families at the Health and Human Services Department.
 
Most of the children were nabbed in Texas, and many have been sent to Arizona due to overcrowding at Texas facilities.
 
Johnson said those caught illegally crossing the border were "priorities for removal."
 
"They are priorities for enforcement of our immigration laws regardless of age," he added.
 
The Department of Defense is loaning three military bases to process and shelter the children.
 
And Johnson said the government has "surged" federal law enforcement officers to crack down on human traffickers who operate along the border.
 
Overwhelmed
 
Greenberg said his agency has been building capacity to handle the increase of migrants, but was overwhelmed in recent months.
 
"What has happened in this most recent period is that the numbers, particularly since the beginning of May, have grown at a pace beyond what we had predicted and beyond what (the) Department of Homeland Security had predicted," he said.
 
"That's what has caused this most recent set of challenges."
 
Johnson said he planned to travel to Guatemala in July to address the crisis.
 
"We know we must do something to stem this tide," he said, noting he had been in touch with the ambassadors and other officials from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. —Agence France-Presse

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