Leaked Documents: 'Family Members' Appearing 'Several Times' to Pick Up Illegal Immigrant Kids

Federal officials have noticed that adults claiming to be family members are appearing “several times” to pick up different unaccompanied children from Central America in various detention centers along the border. 

A leaked June 4, 2014 internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that Breitbart Texas obtained cites anecdotal evidence from federal officials that suggests that the “same family members” and sponsors “appear several times” to claim the unaccompanied children from the Department of Health and Human Services. 

As Breitbart News has noted, under a 2008 law that President George W. Bush signed, illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico or Canada must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours and can be placed with a “suitable family member” in the United States. The report also notes that unaccompanied children can only be kept for 12 hours at the initial detention center. 

The report found that fewer than 50% of the unaccompanied children have been discharged to a mother or father. The majority of people who have picked up the unaccompanied children have been “adult siblings,” “aunts,” “uncles,” “grandparents,” or “more distant relatives, family, or associates.”

In addition, 98% of the illegal immigrant children from countries other than Mexico, according to the report, are “not immediately removed from the United States” after being given various notices to appear before immigration officials. As Breitbart News has reported, the number of illegal immigrant children from Central America drastically increased after President Barack Obama enacted, by executive fiat, the Deferred Action Program for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012:

According to the Christian Science Monitor, “during the decade preceding fiscal year 2012, the federal government agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally dealt with an average of 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year.” In fiscal year 2011, there were 6,560, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Yet, as the Monitor noted, the following year, when Obama enacted DACA, “the number jumped to 13,625,” and at least 50,000 have entered illegally since October of last year. Officials estimate at least 150,000-160,000 more will try next year.

Though White House officials have gone on a public relations campaign to tell Central Americans that they will not receive amnesty, many illegal immigrants have said they traveled to America believing the Obama administration would never deport them if they made it across the U.S.-Mexico border.