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Border crisis 101: eight things to know about unaccompanied children

Here’s a look at today’s immigration crisis and how it compares to the recent past.

4. Why does country of origin matter?

Rebecca Blackwell/AP/File
Central American migrants scramble onto a moving freight train as it pulls into the station in Arriaga, Mexico, in June.

Mexican children can usually be deported easily. But children from Central America have additional rights, under a 2008 law aimed at curbing child trafficking. The law grants children from countries that don’t border on the US the right to formal removal hearings.

The Department of Health and Human Services takes custody of these children and places some with sponsors. The number of migrant children in government custody has more than tripled between FY 2011 and FY 2013. That number is on pace to double again in FY 2014, overwhelming US facilities.

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