Caribbean & Central America - June 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Some 47,000 Central American children – the vast majority from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - have entered the US illegally on their own so far this year, almost double the number of last year, on official US estimates. So overwhelmed are local authorities that President Barack Obama in early June declared “an urgent humanitarian situation”.

Unaccompanied children detained at the US border become wards of the state and the responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). With the HHS simply unable to cope, the US government has designated three military bases to provide temporary emergency housing for the minors and US media reports suggest that the White House is seeking some US$2.0bn for the HSS to handle the situation in fiscal 2015 (starting on 1 October), more than twice the US$868m appropriated this year. The Obama government has confirmed that it will also ask Congress for an additional US$560m to help the Department of Homeland Security cope with the influx.

The Obama administration has strongly refuted opposition Republican suggestions that the wave of illegal child migrants might be related to legislation pending in Congress to amend US immigration policy. The White House director of domestic policy, Cecilia Muñoz, attributed the surge in child migration to the extreme violence in the three countries, noting a very high number of younger children arriving (under the age of 13), in particular girls, often fleeing domestic abuse or drug-related violence. In many cases, the children are seeking to reunite with a parent already in the US.

According to the spokesperson for the Honduran embassy in Washington, Carol Escalante, the embassy estimates that there are “at least 13,000” Honduran children living in temporary accommodation as wards of the state in Texas, Arizona y Atlanta. ‘Coyotes’ are often involved in trying to cross the children over the border. Yolanda Oliva, the Honduran consul in Houston, Texas, told Radio América that the detainees include toddlers still in nappies that have become separated from their parents before crossing the border. Others may have come in with a parent. US migration law prevents the deportation of children and their mother when they are arrested together. After processing separately they are reunited, with temporary status to remain in the country. In some cases, however, the children are abandoned, simply left to the authorities.

Commenting on the situation in some of the temporary shelters set up to accommodate the children, Olivia said consular officials had witnessed “a dramatic picture”…”these are children that have arrived looking for their parents, they only want to be reunited with their parents, but they have failed in their attempts” she said.

Over 100 Honduran children killed in May alone

According to Casa Alianza, the Honduran chapter of a UK-registered NGO dedicated to the defence and care of homeless children, 102 young people, minors and children under the age of 23 were killed in violent incidents in Honduras in the month of May 2014 alone, up from 82 in April. The NGO’s monthly report, Observatorio de Derechos de los Niños, Niñas y Jóvenes en Honduras, which compiles officially reported figures as well as screening local press reports, said 87 males and 15 females were killed in May, 75% of them by firearms, 8% by knives, and 4% by asphyxiation. The details are brutal, and the NGO notes that the suspected perpetrators include not only drug trafficking and street gangs but also members of the local police. Most - 92% - of the deaths were registered in five of the country’s 18 departments - Cortés, Francisco Morazán, Yoro, Colón and Santa Bárbara. In the first four months of 2014, according to Casa Alianza, 361 children and young people under 23 were the victims of arbitrary executions, compared to 112 in the same period of 2010.

• Emergency shelters

The three military bases designated as additional emergency shelters are Fort Sill in Oklahoma, Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas, and Ventura County naval base in southern California.