Study: US system for immigrant kids is improving

More than 90,000 kids came into this country unaccompanied in 2007. Most are sent back right away but thousands are placed in facilities and need many services. DP

By ANABELLE GARAY

DALLAS (AP) — Conditions have improved for immigrant children held after arriving in the U.S. without parents or guardians, but some still face inadequate services and overly harsh discipline, according to a study released Wednesday by an advocacy organization.

Researchers visited more than 30 facilities around the country to examine the effects of a 2003 change in the federal system for overseeing the thousands of children who arrive alone.

"These kids are really traumatized," said Michelle Brane of the Women's Refugee Commission, which conducted the study with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, a law firm. "It's a challenge to provide them with services."

The Department of Health and Human Services declined comment, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return telephone calls Wednesday. Both agencies are involved in the apprehension or custody of unaccompanied minors.

More than 90,000 such children were apprehended in 2007 along the country's southern border. Most were immediately sent back to their homeland — Mexico, in many cases — but about 8,000 were placed in U.S. custody, the report said.

Those children must be transferred to HHS' Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services, created in 2003. Before that, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service handled the apprehension and custody of unaccompanied immigrant minors.

The division has placed some children in foster care, housed others in child-friendly shelters or group facilities, and reunited many more with parents or relatives while awaiting the outcomes of their immigration cases, the report said.

Children have gotten better medical care, psychological treatment and education under the division's oversight than they did before, said Brane, director of the refugee commission's detention and asylum program.
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