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Immigration reform advocates say foster programs encourage fraud

Associated Press - July 20, 2007 1:15 PM ET

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - It looks like another storefront in the Brownsville strip mall. But it opens up into a complex of offices and classrooms bedecked with American flags.

Enter a classroom and dozens of kids look up from workbooks and deliver a heavily accented group "good morning."

The kids are illegal immigrants -- and all but one are from Central America.
They're enrolled at International Educational Services -- which is 1 of more than 30 nonprofit agencies under contract with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

In the afternoon, they'll go to foster homes, where they'll live until they can be united with a "sponsor" -- that is, a parent, relative or family friend within 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 that most will eventually fade into the nation's illegal immigrant subculture.

A 2004 analysis by the Homeland Security department's inspector general found that 68% of the juveniles never appeared in court.

Don Barnett's analyzed the system for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. He says he's found that in some cases children are being turned over to non-relatives because their blood relatives are illegal immigrants, themselves. He says the system is fraud-prone and an inducement to illegal immigration.

He says smugglers are telling parents to separate from the children once they cross the Rio Grande. That's because even if they're caught by the Border Patrol, children are all but guaranteed a safe, comfortable home within a day or so.

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