Hundreds of Toddlers Said to Be Taken Into Custody at the Border

Fusion ^ | Friday, June 20, 2014 | Ted Hesson and Jordan Fabian

[kristinn]

Hundreds of infants and toddlers ages 2 years or younger have allegedly been apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol while crossing the border illegally without a parent or guardian in the past year.

From October 1, 2013 to June 11, Border Patrol detained 378 unaccompanied children ages two or younger, according to data obtained by Fusion from the office of a high-ranking Democratic senator. Of those children, 95 were infants under 1 year old.

Fusion tried multiple times by phone and in writing to confirm the reports with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, but no official would comment specifically, and instead referred to a previous statement. The Department of Health and Human Services, charged with the care of unaccompanied minors caught at the border, did not respond to a request for comment.

Omar Zamora, a spokesperson for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, limited his comment to: “We are receiving children of all ages.”

Official data from last year shows that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement logged 27 deportations of children under the age of two, suggesting the federal government has processed infants in the past.

Emily Butera, a senior program officer at the Women's Refugee Commission, said she has seen unaccompanied babies in the shelter system in past years, but that the problem is getting worse. She said the youngest kids are sometimes sent across the border with older siblings, or with paid smugglers.

Butera said the average age of an unaccompanied child migrant is now 14 years old, younger than in previous years. “And we’re seeing more babies and toddlers than we had in the past,” she said.

The phenomenon puts an exclamation point on the greater immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border. Roughly 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the...

[South40]

The U.S. government should demand that the countries where the illegal migrants came from pay for the care of their illegal migrants and for the expedited repatriation to their country of origin.

Not a chance. Barry has already earmarked $100 million US taxpayer dollars to "repatriate" the ILLEGAL hordes.

We either give millions to these countries or we are their chief trading partner, so we have influence if we choose to use it. The problem is, we don't because we have a failure of a president who lacks the will.

[lulu16]

The border patrol acknowledges that these gang members create new “families” knowing they won’t be tossed back over the border. It is such a scam, isn’t it?