A surge of young people trying to cross the border has led to the need to place 100 unaccompanied, undocumented children at Lackland AFB.
No one can say why their numbers have risen dramatically in the past six months, even as overall apprehensions of illegal immigrants are down nationwide.
“All anyone can do is speculate about what's going on,” said Lavinia Limón, president and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Health and Human Services' division of Unaccompanied Children's Services, charged with caring for children caught crossing the border, has taken in 7,000 to 8,000 undocumented children annually over the past three years, but has cared for more than 5,000 youngsters since October. It has seen a jump of 77 percent in the first three months of 2012. Meanwhile, Border Patrol reported apprehending a record-low 340,000 people, down from 1 million as recently as 2006.
The Air Force and HHS said the first of the children arrived on the base Monday, with more arriving today. They'll stay in an unused 1,000-student dormitory with showers and a dining hall.
“We're simply providing the temporary housing,” said Brent Boller, a spokesman for Joint Base San Antonio, which oversees Lackland, Fort Sam Houston and Randolph AFB.
Unaccompanied Children's Services brought the children to San Antonio because there was no more room in the facilities where they usually stay.
Linda Brandmiller, director of immigration services for Catholic Charities in San Antonio, said unaccompanied children are not housed in immigrant detention centers.
The 2002 Homeland Security Act required that Health and Human Services adopt a child welfare-based model of care. Government housing is usually temporary until children can be placed in a foster home or with a family member, should the children seek legal status in the U.S.
They are living in 13 states, with the government providing housing, health care and psychiatric treatment. Ultimately, nearly nine in every 10 migrant children are reunited with their families.
They often leave their homes and communities to find family members in the United States, but many flee abusive surroundings and exploitation. Most often caught at the border, HHS said, they also come here because of political persecution and to work.
Nonprofits that take on the cases of these children must learn if they qualify for legal status, such as asylum, Brandmiller said. They also must decide if visas can be obtained for children who were neglected, abused, abandoned or victimized by crime or who cannot be reunited with their parents.
“We have to be careful about turning these children back to an unknown destiny without at least exploring what their options are,” she said.
Two-thirds of the children come from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Just 12 percent come from Mexico. Roughly eight in every 10 are boys, with 83 percent older than 14. The oldest is 17.
Limón said only half of the children crossing the border are caught. A majority of those calling her organization for help say they fled after being forcibly recruited into gangs and prostitution. That typically happens when victims are as young as 12 or 13.
“The children are recruited quite early, and it is very difficult for them to resist, and so the ones who don't want to be part of those kinds of activities take off,” explained Limón, whose group advocates for refugees and helps them become U.S. citizens.
Boller would not say where the children would stay on Lackland, but it is not the first time a San Antonio base has been used for displaced people. In 2005, Building 171 on Lackland's Kelly Annex was used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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