DIGGING DEEPER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution provided some of the earliest coverage on the flood of unaccompanied children from Central America who are crossing the nation’s southwest border. From the consequences for the state to one youth’s odyssey, find our coverage at www.myajc.com.
The federal government transferred 258 more unaccompanied Central American children to the care of sponsors in Georgia last month, bringing the total to 1,412 since the beginning of this year, updated federal figures show.
As of July 31, 37,477 of these children have been placed in the care of sponsors across the country, according to an online report by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The report shows Georgia still ranks ninth among states for the number of such children it has received this year. That matches Georgia’s ninth-place ranking among states for its total population — at 9.9 million.
Texas ranks first with 5,280 of the children, followed by New York, 4,244; California, 3,909; Florida, 3,809; Virginia, 2,856; Maryland, 2,804; New Jersey, 1,877; and North Carolina, 1,429.
Tens of thousands of children have illegally crossed the southwest border without their parents in recent months, fleeing deprivation and gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The situation has created a humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border and become a new flash point in the congressional debate over immigration.
Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican locked in a tight re-election race, sent an angry letter to President Barack Obama last month, saying he was shocked to learn the federal government had transferred 1,154 of the children to sponsors in Georgia by the end of June. Deal said in his letter that he was seeking information about the children’s immigration status, the services they would need and details about the process the government used to place them in Georgia.
The federal government cares for the children in shelters across the country until they can be released to sponsors — typically parents or relatives — who care for them while their immigration cases are processed, the Office of Refugee Resettlement says on its website.
The children receive vaccinations and medical screenings before they are released to the sponsors. And the sponsors must undergo background checks and agree to cooperate with the children’s immigration proceedings.
“Ensuring that a potential sponsor can safely and appropriately care for the child is a top priority,” the federal agency says on its website.
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