Few Children Are Deported - Clogged Courts Mean Young Migrants Face Low Odds of Being Sent Back Home

From The Wall Street Journal:

Thousands of children from Central America are undertaking a perilous journey to the U.S. border despite warnings from the U.S. that they will be sent back. In fact, many will get to stay.

Data from immigration courts, along with interviews with the children and their advocates, show that few minors are sent home and many are able to stay for years in the U.S., if not permanently. That presents a deep challenge for President Barack Obama and lawmakers as they try to shore up an overburdened deportation system.

In fiscal year 2013, immigration judges ordered 3,525 migrant children to be deported, according to Justice Department figures. Judges allowed an additional 888 to voluntarily return home without a formal removal order.

Those figures pale in comparison with the number of children apprehended by the border patrol. In each of the last five years, at least 23,000 and as many as 47,000 juveniles have been apprehended. Those totals include Mexicans, who often are sent home without formal deportation proceedings and so may not be among those ordered removed last year.

 

There are many reasons children end up staying. Some see their cases linger in backlogged courts and administrative proceedings. Some win the legal right to remain in the U.S. And some ignore orders to appear in court.