Surge in unaccompanied minors hitting courts

• Immigration courts across the country are beginning to feel the crush of new juvenile cases
• The cases often are transferred to other courts when juveniles are released to relatives in other states.
• The transfers have generated confusion, adding to perceptions that kids are skipping hearings

Wearing a purple shirt and black tie, the 17-year-old boy from Honduras whistled nervously as he walked to the front of a courtroom to face an immigration judge in Phoenix.

It was the boy's first appearance in immigration court. He is one of tens of thousands of children from Central America facing deportation after record numbers of unaccompanied children entered the U.S. illegally this year.

But within minutes the initial hearing was over. After being housed in a shelter in Phoenix, the boy would be placed with a family friend in California.

As a result, his deportation case would be transferred to another immigration court in that state.

The scene, which took place on Monday, has become commonplace at the Phoenix immigration court, and in immigration courts across the country as the nation's already overburdened immigration system struggles to handle a crush of new juvenile cases.

The cases are being transferred from one immigration court to another, often across the country, as growing numbers of unaccompanied minors held in shelters in one state are placed with family members in other states.

The transfers have generated confusion, adding to the perception that some unaccompanied children are not showing up for court hearings, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at the New York University School of Law.

Under a 2008 law, unaccompanied children from countries that don't border the U.S. are placed in deportation proceedings, but they cannot be sent back to their home countries until they are given a chance to appear in front of an immigration judge who will decide whether they can remain in the U.S.

The consequences for those who don't show up can be severe; a judge can order them deported immediately.

"This can actually be quite bad if you don't let the judge know immediately that the child has been placed somewhere else. The judge may order the child removed in absentia," Chishti said.

Earlier this year, Arizona's two U.S. senators, Republicans Jeff Flake and John McCain, claimed in interviews that nine out of 10 juveniles skip their immigration hearings.

Juan Osuna, the head of the Department of Justice's Executive Office of Immigration Review, disputed that number.

He said 46 percent of all juveniles fail to appear at the hearings, though he was unable to say what the percentage is for unaccompanied minors.

On Monday, 16 juvenile cases were scheduled in the Phoenix immigration court. But 13 children didn't show up.

But it wasn't because the children were skipping out on their hearings.

They had already been released from shelters in the Phoenix area and placed with family members in other states, said Gladis Molina, managing attorney for the Children's Project of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

The three who did show up included the boy from Honduras, whose case was transferred, and two other boys, whose cases were rescheduled.

The Children's Project provides legal assistance to unaccompanied minors facing deportation.

After the immigration judge, LaMonte Freerks, was informed by a lawyer from the Children's Project that the children with court hearings that day had been placed with family members in other states, he transferred their cases to courts in those states.

Cases were transferred to Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Tennessee, Molina said, as well as Massachusetts, New York, California and Missouri.

Since the surge started earlier this year, hundreds of unaccompanied children apprehended by the Border Patrol have been housed temporarily in a network of shelters throughout the Valley until they can be placed with family members in the U.S. or with other sponsors.

The children housed in shelters in the Phoenix area are given dates to appear in the Phoenix immigration court for their initial deportation hearings. But so far, the vast majority have been released to relatives in other states, Molina said.

"Arizona is not a destination place," she said. "They are just passing through."

Of the 30,340 unaccompanied children released to family members or other sponsors this year through July 7, only 186 have been placed in Arizona, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Texas received the highest number, with 4,280, followed by New York, with 3,347, Florida, with 3,181, California, with 3,150, and Maryland, 2,205.

Chishti with the Migration Policy Institute said children are being placed with family members in states with the largest populations of Central Americans.

"You go to where your family is," he said.

Chishti said immigration courts in cities with the largest Central American populations are feeling the most impact from the recent surge cases involving unaccompanied minors.

The Los Angeles area has nearly 500,000 Central American immigrants, the highest number of any metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by MPI.

The New York City area is second, with 286,000, followed by the the Washington, D.C., area with 237,000, the Houston area with 180,000, and the Miami area with 129,000, according to MPI.

In contrast, there are about 18,000 Central Americans living in the Phoenix area, less than 1 percent of the 2.5 million Central Americans living in the U.S., according to MPI.

The flood of new juvenile cases also has added to a record backlog of all immigration cases that already exceeds 375,000, Chishti said.

It could take years for the juvenile cases to be settled, he said.

The U.S. House is expected to vote on a bill today that would devote $22 million in part to hire more immigration judges to help accelerate deportation proceedings for unaccompanied minors.

"The quicker these cases are processed" and the quicker kids who don't deserve to remain legally are deported, "the stronger the message is going to be that people should not come who don't have a case for relief," Chishti said.