KIND visits Southwest Border
- Monday, March 21, 2011 |
- Written by Megan Mckenna
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Many of KIND's clients are found by U.S. government officials at the Southwest border that divides Mexico from the United States. The officials, most often Customs and Border Protection officers, are charged with screening children to determine if they are unaccompanied, and for concerns about the child's health, well-being, safety, and fear of return.
Based on this information, the officer decides whether the child should be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services. The majority of these children are not from Mexico, but are passing through the country to enter the United States.
An advocacy issue that KIND has worked on since our inception is to ensure that Customs and Border Protection officers have the training and other tools they need to be able to screen these children effectively and ensure that unaccompanied children who need U.S. protection are identified. KIND and other advocates have been concerned that this screening is not always conducted thoroughly.
Until relatively recently, unaccompanied children from countries contiguous to the United States (e.g. Mexico) were except from this screening requirement; Customs and Border Protection officers would return thousands of Mexican children immediately to Mexico, for example, without screening. A provision of a 2008 law required that children from contiguous countries also be screened to determine if they were victims of trafficking, if they had a fear of returning to their home country, or if they were particularly vulnerable for other reasons. This provision of the law, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008, was enacted because it was feared that a number of Mexican children were being returned to dangerous or exploitative situations. KIND and other advocates are concerned that this additional screening as required by the TVPRA is not being conducted at all times when a CBP officer comes into contact with an unaccompanied child.
On a recent fact-finding mission to the border at El Paso, Texas, KIND and other advocates investigated these screening concerns among other issues. The delegation, which included the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), met with the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), local non-governmental organizations and government officials on both sides of the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border, and visited a government funded shelter facility.
Based on an analysis of the information we gathered, KIND and the other members of the delegation will follow up with government officials in Washington, DC regarding questions that arose as a result of the trip, to relay any concerns we have regarding the treatment and care of unaccompanied children in the El Paso/Juarez region, and provide suggestions for ways CBP could improve its treatment of these children, and to offer our assistance in ensuring the protection of these children.
Stay tuned for more news regarding KIND's advocacy in this area.
