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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Shelter Opens for Kids Returned by US
 Daniel González - The Arizona Republic
| | Last year, the Border Patrol sent back to Mexico more than 6,200 unaccompanied immigrant children caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally. |
The state of Sonora is opening a shelter in Nogales today to care for children who have been returned to Mexico after trying to illegally enter the United States.
The shelter is the second of three that Sonora is opening along the border to better care for the thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children deported back to Mexico every year by U.S. immigration officials.
Under the new program, children just returned to Mexico will be held for 72 hours in the shelters.
The children will receive medical and psychological care and will be provided a safe place to live instead of being turned out on the street, as often happened in the past, said Flor Ayala, director of the Sonora Department for the Integral Development of the Family, known as DIF.
After 72 hours, the children will be transferred to permanent shelters while Mexican officials attempt to reunite the children with relatives or parents in Mexico or the United States. Under a new Sonora law, parents who don't claim their children within 90 days could lose their legal rights, and the children could be put up for adoption.
Mexican officials acknowledged Tuesday that the new program could pose a dilemma for undocumented parents in the United States. They could be forced to risk leaving behind families in this country to reclaim a child across the border. Some may resort to re-entering this country illegally.
Still, "that's not a justification to forget your child for 90 days," said Lourdes Laborín de Bours, president of DIF.
Last year, the Border Patrol sent back to Mexico more than 6,200 unaccompanied immigrant children caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
At a news conference in Phoenix, Bours asked the U.S. government to review the way unaccompanied immigrant children are treated by officials.
"The majority of them are treated well, but there have been cases where they have been treated badly," Bours said.
In a letter to California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Bours said U.S. immigration officials who catch unaccompanied children at night should wait to deport them until they can be turned over directly to Mexican officials. Feinstein is the author of a bill that would make sure unaccompanied immigrant children are not treated as adults or criminals by authorities.
Charles Griffin, a Border Patrol spokesman in Tucson, disputed Bour's claim that unaccompanied children are sometimes treated poorly. He said the children already are handed over to Mexican officials under the agency's current policy.
He also said Border Patrol agents routinely launch searches to reunite parents with children after they have become separated in the desert.
The state opened the first shelter in November in San Luis Rio Colorado, across from Yuma. The third will open in June or July in Agua Prieta, across from Douglas. |
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