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  1. #1
    Senior Member avenger's Avatar
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    Foster care a way in for illegal immigrant kids

    Foster care a way in for illegal immigrant kids
    The Associated Press : July 24 , 2007

    "[C]ritics say the majority will eventually fade into the nation's illegal immigrant subculture, having gamed the nation's alphabet soup of homeland security and social service agencies."
    BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- International Educational Services' strip mall storefront opens up into a complex of cheery offices and classrooms decorated with American flags.


    Open a classroom door, and dozens of smiling children look up from their workbooks for a heavily accented group "good morning."


    The children are illegal immigrants. In the afternoon, they will go to foster homes, where they'll live until they can be united with a "sponsor" -- a parent, relative or family friend in the United States.


    It's a better scenario than they would have faced in the past, when children caught crossing the border were locked up like adults.


    But critics say the majority will eventually fade into the nation's illegal immigrant subculture, having gamed the nation's alphabet soup of homeland security and social service agencies.


    "This is fraud-prone, and this is an inducement to illegal immigration," said Don Barnett, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies who has analyzed the system.


    "There's no question that smugglers are totally aware of this program and know how to use it."


    A 2001 federal report found that 68 percent of juveniles released to sponsors don't appear in court.


    The Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General continues to use that number, even though it says there are no accurate counts.


    Similarly, there are few concrete numbers of the unaccompanied juveniles. Mr. Barnett's organization says about 8,000 juveniles are unaccompanied and about 850 are in shelters every day.


    Mr. Barnett found that in some cases, children are turned over to sponsors who aren't relatives because their family members are illegal immigrants who fear being deported if they try to claim their children.


    He said smugglers are telling parents to separate from the children once they cross the border.


    If the Border Patrol catches the children, they are all but guaranteed to be in a safe, comfortable home within a day or so and placed with a relative or friend within a few weeks or months.


    If they were caught together, the family would be detained in a family facility, such as the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas. It has been criticized for prison-like conditions.


    Children interviewed at the Brownsville facility seemed upbeat, saying they were happy at their temporary homes.


    One, a 13-year-old from Honduras, said she thought the journey was fun.


    The foster care programs grew out of the 1997 settlement of Flores vs. Reno, a class-action lawsuit against the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. The suit argued that it was wrong for children caught by the Border Patrol to be punished like adults.


    Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which abolished INS and created the Department of Homeland Security, the care and placement of illegal immigrant children was transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide a more humane environment for them. Since January, educational services has received $5 million in federal money for two foster programs as well as for the detention center where teens are housed a few miles away in Los Fresnos, Texas.


    Foster parents are reimbursed for the costs of feeding the children and seeing to it that they experience "environment" -- which can mean trips to parks and malls. All homes are equipped with cribs for the many teenage girls arriving with babies or in advanced pregnancy. Eventually, the children will be on their way to a relative or the home of a family friend.


    "It's up to the sponsors to see that they attend court sessions to see if they can stay or not," said Teresa Brooks, an official with the Office of Refugee Resettlement.


    Kathleen Walker, a longtime immigration lawyer based in El Paso, said such programs should be embraced for treating children like children rather than prisoners.


    She said the government has records of every sponsor and should have no problem following up on cases. "Is the objection here that we want to make sure that children are behind bars and behind concertina wires?"
    Never give up! Never surrender! Never compromise your values!*
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  2. #2
    Senior Member BorderLegionnaire's Avatar
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    Great more tax dollars to house illegal immigrants children, with there cowardly parents hide due to deportation!!! Some family oriented culture they have!!! This is the continuing burden on the US tax payer to house and feed illegal immigrate children that should be with there parents and in there own country!!!
    Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.
    -Ron Paul

  3. #3
    Senior Member tinybobidaho's Avatar
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    Typical. The parents break the law and we foot the bill.
    RIP TinybobIdaho -- May God smile upon you in his domain forevermore.

    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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    The Dallas Morning News did a story on this subject this morning as well. I was sooo surprised to see them do an anti-illegal immigrant story, as they almost never do!!!

    TexasGal

    http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 9cbfd.html


    Option Editorial

    Foster Care Foothold: Illegal migrants are exploiting the system

    07:59 AM CDT on Friday, July 27, 2007

    No one likes seeing children get caught up in the nastiness of immigration enforcement. But the unpleasant truth is that children are being used increasingly as tools by illegal-migrant parents seeking to gain a foothold in this country.

    Adult illegal migrants have realized that, although Americans may well deport them, we will do everything possible to guard the welfare of unaccompanied minors. The federal government has set up a network of foster-care contractors who provide temporary homes because it's unacceptable to imprison children or dump them at the border to fend for themselves.

    Unfortunately, our humanitarian effort has become one more way for illegal migrant families to work the system. Having any relative – be it child, uncle, aunt or cousin – already living here makes it easier to find a place to live and work. Some parents deliberately abandon their children when immigration authorities swoop down because, statistically, unaccompanied children have a far lower probability of being deported.

    Detained children find temporary homes with contracting organizations that receive government stipends to care for them. There's even money to take them on trips to parks or malls.

    According to Don Barnett, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, about 8,000 unaccompanied alien children enter the federal foster-care system, and nearly 70 percent of them never appear at their deportation hearings because they escape or are handed over to relatives who secret them away.

    Putting children in prison-like conditions, such as the Hutto family detention center in Central Texas, is not the enforcement answer. But neither is a foster-care system that releases thousands of children back into the illegal migrant community.

    Absent a comprehensive solution for immigration reform, the foster-care system needs major adjustments. The government cannot continue to pay private contracting groups to provide care without holding anyone accountable.

    Federal authorities can start by introducing contractual clauses and financial penalties for foster-care providers who lose track of the children under their control. They don't just serve as paid surrogate parents. As government contractors, they should be the on-site monitors to ensure this system doesn't become another tool for exploitation.

    Americans should never stop being humanitarians. Just stop being patsies.

  5. #5
    Senior Member BorderLegionnaire's Avatar
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    It sux that children are in the mix but its not our problem! We have our own homeless children and adults and we need to care for them first! If I was homeless and on the street and I see they give help to illegals first before me I would be outraged!!! Hmmm.... I guess I'm still outraged anyway!!!
    Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.
    -Ron Paul

  6. #6
    Senior Member avenger's Avatar
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    Yeah, this is a tuff one when the heart is concerned. We do not have an obligation to be taken advantage of because of our kind hearts though, after all isn't that why we're in the mess with illegals in the first place? These children should be the responsibility of the country of their parents origin and delt with accordingly.
    Never give up! Never surrender! Never compromise your values!*
    __________________________________________________ __

    NO MORE ROTHSCHILD STOOGES IN PUBLIC OFFICE!!!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  7. #7
    Senior Member BorderLegionnaire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by avenger
    Yeah, this is a tuff one when the heart is concerned. We do not have an obligation to be taken advantage of because of our kind hearts though, after all isn't that why we're in the mess with illegals in the first place? These children should be the responsibility of the country of their parents origin and delt with accordingly.
    Sure.... I mean we can be humanitarian to a point then pass there children back to the country of origin! The parents are selfish to think for them selfs and not of there children! If the parents are caught should be dealt with severely and jailed then deported! Child abuse is a big thing here in American but if illegals are involved its not taken seriously enough!!!
    Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.
    -Ron Paul

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