Texas is top destination for migrant youths
A record number of unaccompanied migrant children and teens traveled to the U.s.-mexico border in 2021, and more ended up in Texas than any other state.
U.S. Health and Human Services reported that about 15,000 unaccompanied migrant youth were released to sponsors in Texas during fiscal year 2021. Overall, 107,686 children and teens released to sponsors nationwide.
Unaccompanied minors arrive at the U.s.-mexico border without a parent or sponsor and are often immigrating due to poverty, violence or climate-related disaster in their home countries (or a combination of the three). They’re also commonly seeking to reunite with family members who previously moved to the United States for a better life, many without authorization.
Around 90 percent of the migrant kids arriving at the U.s.mexico border without parents or official sponsors in 2021 came from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.
About 7,000 of the unaccompanied migrant youth were released to sponsors in Harris County, more than any other county in the nation.
Fiscal year 2021 broke records for the highest number of unaccompanied minors to ever enter the country, though setting records is nothing new for this particular population.
“Beginning in 2012, we started to see large increases as such that every two to three years there was a spike,” said Essey Workie, a director at the D.c.-based think tank Migration Policy Institute.
“Each spike was more than the former spike so we’re constantly setting new historical highs.”
She said many factors can influence a kid’s decision to leave their home. Climate-related reasons play a factor, like hurricanes and drought, as well as economic and safety conditions.
“A lot of the people who are coming to the U.S. are being threatened with their lives, have experienced traumatic acts of violence,
including rape. And so it’s untenable and that’s why they’re coming,” Workie said.
Having family already living in the U.S. is also a very common component.
“Family reunification is a huge factor in all of this,” she said, “Children that come to the U.S. and are under federal custody are primarily released to parents and very close relatives.”
Though Central American minors are permitted to enter the country under President Joe Biden’s current border policy, the majority of adults from the Northern Triangle are being turned away from the border and denied the opportunity to seek asylum under a public health law called “Title 42.”
These Title 42 expulsions started under the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued under Biden, drawing much criticism from immigration attorneys, international human rights experts and some Democrats.
The Trump administration had also been expelling these Central American minors during the pandemic.
After kids are taken into federal custody at the U.s.-mexico border, they are sent to shelters, which contact their family members so they be moved into their new households, generally within 40 days.
What happens to youth once the government hands them off to their family members or other sponsors is less clear as there’s little governmental follow-up with families to see how the children are adjusting to a new culture, language and living situation.
“They went through a very traumatic experience having to flee, leave their loved one, go walk through Mexico, probably get assaulted or robbed,” said immigration attorney Brandon Roché, who has represented unaccompanied minors in court, “So there’s a lot of counseling probably necessary that a lot of them don’t have the means or even wherewithal to know that they need it.”
Sometimes children and teens are released to family members they haven’t seen since they were toddlers.
Wisdom High School teacher Garrett Reed has taught migrant teens from all over the world, including the unaccompanied Central American kids.
His class consistently grows in size during the school year. This school year he’s seen a lot of Guatemalan unaccompanied minors, as well as the evacuated Afghans.
He’s honest about the challenges the Guatemalan students face in particular, since many grew up with limited formal education and may speak the Mayan language K’iche’ as their first language.
“I’d say about half of them have probably a third grade Spanish education,” he said.
Though Reed is glad to see his international students getting along so well, he wishes the school would add another class specifically for students with interrupted learning that’s designed to help them catch up.
He also said keeping these students in his classroom can be a struggle since many are expected to work and financially contribute to their families.
“That’s a hard choice and when you turn 17 or 18. Their families expect them to work and send money back home,” he said.
As an example, he said when his students did their New Year’s resolutions, one student’s goal was to build a home for his family back in Guatemala.
“They’re doing the American dream but in a little different way,” Reed said. “I totally admire that.”