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Children sleeping on plastic boards
About 700 unaccompanied minors mostly from Central America were sleeping on plastic boards at a Border Patrol warehouse in Nogales, Arizona, the vast majority flown from South Texas. It is the latest illustration of how a wave of immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala has overwhelmed US border authorities. An unusually large number of those crossing in South Texas are unaccompanied children, many seeking to join parents who are already in the US illegally. Authorities arrested 47,017 unaccompanied children on the border from October to May, up by 92 per cent from the same period a year earlier. A draft Border Patrol memorandum estimates that number could reach 90,000 in the financial year ending September 30, up from a previous government estimate of 60,000. Rampant crime and poverty across Central America is a big reason. Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, with 90.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The World Bank says nearly 60 per cent of Honduras’ 8 million people live in poverty. The Obama Administration has asked Congress for US$1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) to help house, feed and transport children and plans to temporarily house more than 1000 at military bases in Ventura, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Immigration officials, by policy, do not keep children in detention. They are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to be housed in shelters until they can be reunited with parents or guardians. A Homeland Security official said Health and Human Services turned to the Border Patrol to house children temporarily at the Nogales warehouse starting on May 31 because they were overwhelmed. About 2000 vinyl-covered mattresses were ordered, and the official expected the population there to double to 1400. Yesterday, about 60 children arrived at the Nogales shelter and the same number left were moved. Carlos de Leon, Guatemala’s viceconsul in Phoenix, said portable showers arrived and a contractor was brought in to serve hot meals.