Almost 90 percent of the so-called “unaccompanied children” who were sent by federal agencies to live in Washington D.C. were united with their parents, according to a statement from Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
“Experts at [an Oct. 14] roundtable reported 301 children had recently come to the District to flee violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, with nearly 90 percent reunited with their own families,” Norton’s statement said.
The 90 percent claim contradicts progressive’ media-magnified claims that migrant children should be treated as refugees because they are involuntarily fleeing broken families, violence and crime.
Instead, the 90 percent figure highlights the role of illegal immigrants in creating and funding the migration of roughly 100,000 “unaccompanied alien children” from Central America into the United States since 2012.
The inflow spiked this summer, and helped to derail the hugely expensive push by progressives and businesses for an amnesty that would provide work-permits to at least 11 million illegal immigrants. GOP leaders blocked the push after polls showed it was very unpopular.
Since last September, roughly 68,000 children and youths have arrived at the U.S. border, after being guided past Mexican gangs and corrupt police by paid smugglers.
Most of the smugglers were paid by Central American parents who are living illegally in the United States.
Once the children and youths arrived at the Texas border, they were accepted by federal agencies and relayed — at no cost — to their parents and relatives living in U.S. cities. They were also allowed to file lawsuits seeking green cards, and the administration has allocated more than $10 million to provide them with free lawyers.
That unprecedented welcome policy was directed by the White House.
This year’s inflow of 68,000 minors included many teens, and likely included many young adults eager to compete against unskilled Americans for manual labor jobs. Border officials do not check the migrants’ claims that they are younger than 18. This year, roughly 85 percent of the minors claimed they were aged 13 to 17.
Many of the 68,000 minors are being enrolled in schoolrooms, despite their impact on Americans students.
Federal officials say migrants older than 17 are sent home, while younger migrants are allowed to ask courts for permission to live in the United States.
The inflow of 68,000 children and youths was accompanied by the inflow of another 68,000 adults and children that arrived in so-called “family units.” Only a few of the people in “family units” are being repatriated, despite their impact on Americans’ workplaces and schools.
However, Norton blamed the United States for the illegals’ decision to bring their children into the country.
“This country’s so-called War on Drugs fostered the violent climate in Central America when gang members were deported there, and now tens of thousands of Central American children are fleeing to the United States,” said Norton’s press release.
“It was understandable that the U.S. deported the criminals, who gave rise to the Central American transnational gangs and drug cartels [that spiked murders rates in Central America]… with the children now fleeing to the U.S., we are paying a price,” Norton told the advocates at her meeting.
“We cannot escape some of the responsibility for assisting these countries to quell the gang violence,” she said.