Ukrainian refugees in Mexico at the border.Photo: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP
Some of the youngest refugees of theRussian invasion of Ukraineare reportedly finding themselves temporarily isolated from relatives after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border — the result of a law requiring unaccompanied minors be placed in government shelters until their guardians have been approved.
According to aNew York Timesstory published Tuesday, the rule (which stems from a law that went into effect in 2008) is impacting many of thethousands of Ukrainians now waiting at the borderfor permission to enter the U.S.
TheTimescites one example in which a woman drove from Los Angeles to pick up her 14-year-old nephew who had fled Ukraine and flown to Mexico. Despite bringing a notarized power of attorney attesting that the boy had been handed into her care, authorities told the woman he could not yet enter the U.S. and that the two would have to wait “one or two days.”
It would be 10 days before the woman finally learned where her nephew was, theTimesreported.
TheTimesreported that, after officers confiscated the teenager’s phone, baggage and shoelaces, she shared a cell with “25 women and children from Ukraine, Russia and other countries, all trying to sleep on the floor with only flimsy foil blankets to cover them.”
The girl was transferred to a migrant children’s shelter in the Bronx and eventually received approval to stay with the family friend, then reunited with her some three weeks after she initially made it to the border.
Though the law most often affects Central American kids and is meant to prevent trafficking and ensure their safety, the requirement has become another step for the unique flow of Ukrainian refugees to the southern border, which they view as the most efficient entry into the country.
Many of the Ukrainian families likely weren’t even familiar with the law when they sent their children to the Mexico crossing to meet with loved ones to bring them into the U.S.
The statement said that 358 children were in CBP custody as of Monday.
Most of the children who are arriving in Tijuana, Mexico, from Ukraine are doing so because their parents could not leave with them. (Most Ukrainian men, for instance, have been forced to stay in Ukraine in case they are needed to join the resistance effort.)
HHS says it holds the child “for testing and quarantine and shelters the child until the child is placed with a sponsor here in the United States.”
In “more than 80 percent of cases, the child has a family member in the United States,” HHS says, adding that, “These children are reunited with their families who will care for them. The children then go through immigration proceedings where they are able to present an application for asylum or other protection under the law.”
source: people.com
