700 children crossed the U.S. border alone after being required to wait in Mexico w/their families

[DonViejo]

700 children crossed the U.S. border alone after being required to wait in Mexico with their families

BY CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ

JANUARY 15, 2021 / 10:18 AM / CBS NEWS

Hundreds of migrant children who crossed the U.S. southern border alone after their families were required to wait in Mexico under a Trump administration policy are being denied legal safeguards established by Congress, lawyers told a federal court Thursday.

Since instituting its "Migrant Protection Protocols" program in early 2019, the Trump administration has required roughly 70,000 non-Mexican asylum-seekers, including families with children, to wait for their U.S. court hearings in northern Mexico, which includes areas the State Department warns Americans not to visit due to widespread crime and violence.

Citing conditions in tent camps, insecurity in Mexican border towns and overall desperation, some migrant parents enrolled in the program have allowed their children to present themselves to U.S. border officials without them, since minors who are processed as unaccompanied can't be returned to Mexico under U.S. policy and law. Many of the children have other family members in the U.S. willing to care for them.

According to government data obtained by CBS News, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency responsible for housing unaccompanied children, has housed 701 minors whose parents were in Mexico under the MPP program. Most — 643 of them — have been released to family members in the U.S.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/children-who-crossed-the-u-s-border-after-their-families-were-required-to-wait-in-mexico-are-being-denied-legal-safeguards-suit-says/