Federal law requires that illegal migrants under the age of 18 be treated differently than adults. Those so-called Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) are not returned to Mexico but are handed over to Health and Human Services (HHS) for temporary housing while a sponsor in the U.S. is located. The specific department charged with this care is the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Between October 2013 and February 2019 ORR resettled a total of 224,000 UACs around the country.
The average UAC is a male, aged 16 or 17. The eventual sponsor, who may or may not be a relative but is usually an illegal himself, will have typically paid smugglers to bring the UAC into the United States to work and send part of his wages, or remittances, back south. Most UACs hail from one of the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. As of April 28, 2022, ORR had 8,645 UACs in its care, with a total capacity of 15,521.
Some of these so-called children have already been inducted into criminal gangs, such as MS-13, before arriving in the United States. Others are recruited in HHS shelters. A 2018 report authored by Jessica Vaughan of CIS.org examined 506 cases of MS-13 gang members arrested nationwide since 2012. Vaughan found that 120 had arrived as UACs, including 48 of the murder suspects.
In 2017, Suffolk County, New York, authorities charged more than a dozen MS-13 members with seven murders, including those of two teenage girls. The county had become an MS-13 stronghold after receiving 3,709 UACs between 2014 and 2016. Joseph J. Kolb of CIS wrote:
The Suffolk County attorney should file suit seeking an injunction barring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) from further placement of these kids in Suffolk County. I don’t think this has ever been done before, but ORR has no concern for the welfare of the communities into which they are placing these children. They told me explicitly that they will not alert local schools, social welfare agencies, or police that they are placing UACs in a community for the sake of the children’s privacy. [Emphasis added.}
HHS and ORR are now planning, after having denied they were doing so, to establish a “youth village” on the campus of the defunct American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, NC. Last week, a group of NC congressmen headed by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-Concord) sent a letter to the heads of HHS and ORR demanding answers to a number of questions, including what was being done to ensure that the use of the Academy campus did not pose a danger to North Carolina communities.
In the letter, Hudson points out that on May 12, 2021, during a subcommittee hearing, he had asked Secretary Becerra of ORR, “Have you already sent or are you planning on sending minors to North Carolina?” Becerra’s response at that time was, “There is no plan that we have to shelter children in North Carolina.”
Obviously, Secretary Becerra was not being completely candid. Even before the hearing in question, owners of the Hebrew Academy had begun talks about leasing the property to HHS. The May 6, 2021, edition of the Greensboro News and Record contained the following piece: “Private Greensboro school could be used to house immigrant children who crossed the U.S. border unaccompanied by an adult.”
The 100-acre campus, which was valued in 2019 at $84.5 million, includes an $18-million athletic center and natatorium, athletic fields, and a 22-acre lake, and will provide housing, classrooms and other services for 700 to 800 UACs. Residents are expected to begin arriving next month.
Local officials are fine with the deal, loudly bragging that up to 800 staff members will be hired to manage the facility but noting that Spanish-speaking applicants are those most needed.
For more, see Fox8 News.