SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Shelters in Tijuana have seen an uptick in the number of unaccompanied minors coming into their facilities in recent months.
Migrant advocates say this is due in part to many children showing up at the border hoping to get into the U.S., and when they’re unsuccessful, they end up in a shelter.
Enrique Lucero, director of the Migrant Affairs Office in Tijuana, says parents are also sending their children to the border ahead of themselves, hoping to reunite at some point in the future.
He says the opposite is also taking place.
“Parents are leaving their children behind with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and they go to the United States, but at times, the relatives can’t take care of the minors and they end up in shelters,” he said. “Minors, on their own, are also leaving abusive households or are trying to get away from addicted parents and end up in cities like Tijuana.”
Briza Bentley Ramirez, director with Baja California’s Family Services, did not have statistics as to the number of children ending up in shelters in recent months.
“They are also showing up at the airport and bus stations,” she said. “At times, the children carry no medical, education or any records, so we have to figure out where they came from while providing housing.”
Some children are given space in a state-run shelter in Tijuana, but many also end up at facilities around the city.
Lucero says another issue contributing to the number of children in shelters is a misconception south of the border about minors and the border.
“There’s a belief that unaccompanied minors are accepted into the United States immediately and given asylum,” Lucero said.
In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order making it harder for migrants to stay in the U.S. while seeking asylum.
Although minors are exempt from the new regulations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says the children must have family in the U.S. who will be responsible for them.
During the evaluation process, USCIS turns the minors over to Health and Human Services, which will try to reunite the children with family, otherwise they could be deported.
During the first full month since the President Biden’s order was put in place, 637 minors were apprehended in the San Diego Sector.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not specify how many of the children asked for asylum.
According to CBP data, U.S. Border Patrol agents have encountered 90,030 unaccompanied children along the Southwest Border so far this fiscal year.