Enhancing the Lives of Unaccompanied Minors
According to CNN, every day, hundreds of unoccupied minors cross the southwest border into the United States via rafts with instructional guides on how to reach the Border Patrol station to surrender in search of a better life. Usually, once at the station, they are given paperwork and admitted into the United States with a designated court date. Unless the children are from Mexico or Canada, the Department of Homeland Security does not deport these children back to their home country. The children are often released to family members in the United States and ordered to attend their specific court date. Therefore, the children are able to have a better life in the United States with stable employment, economic stability, and safer living conditions. To address the rising flow of children at the southwest border, the Obama Administration announced the establishment of the “Interagency Unified Coordination Group.” The Group will oversee the coordination of state, local, and federal agencies to provide these children with adequate, short-term amenities and services, as well as long-term programs to monitor and enhance their lives.
This federal response will provide a safe haven for children when they come to the United States. Many of them want to reunite with family members or escape violence in their country. In fact, in many of the countries from which these minors escape, there is an extraordinary amount of generalized violence, such as kidnappings, extortions, and threats, which pose risks to one’s safety, while simultaneously creating a culture of fear and hopelessness. The migration of these minors is thus virtually an escape from destabilization in their country and it benefits not only the minors but also the United States in that these children are able to remove themselves from a landscape of criminal activity and settle into a society that supports and values their hard work. Similarly, the United States benefits from the migration because these immigrants serve as the backbone of the country; they create and fulfill many necessary jobs, which, in turn, embeds them into the fabric of the country.
[Article – CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/09/us/undocumented-children-immigrants/]