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UNITED STATES.- There is a humanitarian crisis happening along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, as a result of a wave of almost 40,000 children crossing the border unaccompanied during 2013, and a projected surge of 75,000 children for 2014.

During the past couple of weeks, special attention has been placed on this phenomenon after President Obama’s administration announced a series of initiatives targeted at easing the burden that this mass influx has caused on the immigration system at the Southern borders of the country.

Images of children being housed in small rooms in unsanitary conditions has shined a brighter spotlight on the issue, as have off-color comments by some groups such as the Border Patrol Union.

But much disinformation has also started to spread in the media and amongst the general population as to the reasons why so many young children have embarked on solo journeys across the border, and where they come from, and what can be done with them.

Vox.com has dismantled thirteen of these myths with the following facts:

*The surge began in 2011, but has gotten worse in the past few months. This isn’t something that happened overnight, but rather has been bubbling for the past two years due to the increased instability in Central America, and is only now becoming a bleak trend.

*Only Mexican children can be immediately deported thanks to its shared border with the US, but Central American children (which make up the majority of recent cases) cannot, and the process can take many months.

*Although some news outlets (Fox News and the radio) have spread the rumor/argument that these children are arriving because of word that Obama has approved an amnesty law known as Deferred Action, the reality is that no law provides automatic immunity to immigrant children who have recently arrived. There was such a law that was approved in the nineties, and was codified and expanded during the George W. Bush administration, that protected non-Mexican children arriving at the border with the intent of combatting child and human trafficking.

*All migrant children detained by the Border Patrol will undergo a judicial process whereby it will be determined whether they qualify as refugees of their home countries, or shall be deported. Under the law, immigration authorities cannot expedite the process and simply deport children without judicial review.

*The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that approximately sixty percent of Central American children may be eligible for some type of humanitarian protection under U.S. law. However, this has nothing to do with the Obama Administration, is related to laws that have existed for decades to protect refugees and migrants.

* While it is true that in some Central American communities a rumor has spread that the U.S. is handing out special permits to children that arrive at the border, this is mostly misinformation and is not attributable to any current policy. Amnesty rumors are not the main cause of the surge.

*Experts have interviewed thousands of minor refugees and report that the primary cause of the massive exodus is violence and economic instability in their home countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

* The current system has capacity for eight thousand migrant children, and cannot support fifty thousand. The Obama administration has already requested 1.4 million dollars to increase Border Patrol capacity, shelters, and immigration court, but Congress has not yet approved funds.

*There are also single parents crossing the Texan border, and they are being separately processed from children, further burdening the immigration system.

More information, including an explanation of how the process to determine how to handle this surge, can be found via Vox.com.

Jose.Sanchez@buscacorp.com

borderzonie@gmail.com