HHS: 60K Unaccompanied Illegal Alien Children Will Be Caught in ’14; Up 815% in 3 Yrs

The Department of Health and Human Services is estimating in its new budget proposal that the number of unaccompanied alien children who will be caught having illegally entered the United States will rise to 60,000 in fiscal 2014.

That is up about 815 percent from the 6,560 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who were apprehended in the U.S. only three years ago in fiscal 2011.

“Since FY 2011, the annual number of arriving UAC has increased from 6,560 to an estimated 60,000 for FY 2014,” says HHS’s “Budget in Brief.”

A fact sheet published by HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), whose Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for dealing with minors illegally entering the United States without their parents or a legal guardian, indicates that beginning in FY 2012, and continuing in FY 2013, the number of these children skyrocketed.

“On average between 7,000 and 8,000 children are served annually in this program,” says the fact sheet....

"An unaccompanied alien child is a child who has no lawful immigration status in the United States; has not attained 18 years of age; and, with respect to whom, there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody," says the fact sheet.

According to HHS, the vast majority of the unaccompanied alien children arriving in the U.S. come from Central America—not Mexico...