http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/0 ... g_kids.php

April 5, 2005
Program will try to place children crossing border with family

The Associated Press

PHOENIX - Mexican officials will try to reunite children separated from their family while trying to illegally enter the United States under a new program being created in the Mexican state of Sonora.

Authorities will try to place the children, who would otherwise be deported back to Mexico by themselves, with relatives or parents in Mexico or in the United States. However, parents who don't claim their children within 90 days will risk losing their children to adoption.

"In the past, some of these children were lost and ended up homeless," said Lourdes Laborin de Bours, president of Desarrollo Integral de la Familia in Sonora, a state family social services agency.

With tighter security on the U.S. side of the border making it riskier for undocumented parents to go back for their kids, children often travel hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles alone.

Last year, the Border Patrol repatriated more than 39,600 children to Sonora alone, after they crossed the border illegally and were apprehended in Arizona. Of those, more than 6,200 were children traveling unaccompanied by a parent or relative, Bours said.

Once repatriated, the children become the responsibility of the state. Bours said they often they need medical care, clothing, food and an education, which costs Sonora millions of dollars.

The state plans to establish shelters in three Sonoran border cities: San Luis Rio Colorado, Nogales and Agua Prieta. During the first 72 hours, repatriated children will receive critical medical and psychological care, Bours said.

Victoria Lopez, executive director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, said the program seems well-intentioned but presents a concern. She fears undocumented parents living in the United States could jeopardize themselves and their families if they return to Mexico for their children and then attempt to re-enter the United States illegally.

Good hearted people with good family values.
dman- I can't wait to get your response on this one! Ms Lopez needs to be educated on the subject of illegal immigration!