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1 1 (March 25, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecue0001 and id is 1 raw text is: * Congressional * Research Service Increasing Numbers of Unaccompanied Alien Children at the Southwest Border March 25, 2021 In the first five months of FY2021, encounters (apprehensions or expulsions) of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) at the U. S.-Mexico border with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are approaching a level close to that for all of FY2020. While the number of UAC encounters declined substantially from FY2019 to FY2020, in large part because of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, they are expected to rapidly increase in the coming months, a trend that has attracted considerable media attention. The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) is currently exercising an authority under Title 42 of the U. S. Code (public health) that permits DHS to rapidly expel all individuals without a valid visa or who are apprehended between official ports of entry in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (expulsions). Under the Biden Administration, unaccompanied children have been exempted from this policy and are no longer being expelled under Title 42. Instead, they are being taken into custody under Title 8 of the U.S. Code (immigration law), as in prior years (apprehensions). Unaccompanied alien children are statutorily defined as children who lack lawful immigration status in the United States, are under age 18, and lack a parent or legal guardian in the United States or a parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody. UAC treatment and processing at U. S. borders is governed by several statutes and a legal settlement. These provisions require that UAC who arrive at the U.S. border and are not from contiguous countries be transferred to the custody of HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and allowed to apply for asylum or other forms of immigration relief. Special provisions permit CBP to quickly repatriate Mexican and Canadian unaccompanied children who are not trafficking victims or who do not fear persecution in their home countries. UAC apprehensions have fluctuated substantially in the past decade. They increased from 16,067 in FY2011 to 68,541 in FY2014, a record high at the time. They declined to 39,970 in FY2015, increased to 59,692 in FY2016, declined to 41,435 in FY2017, and increased to 50,036 in FY2018. In FY2019, they reached anew record high of 76,020. FY2020 saw a decline to 30,557 encounters (19,618 Title 8 apprehensions and 10,939 Title 42 expulsions) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first five months of FY2021, encounters reached 29,010 (24,369 apprehensions and 4,641 expulsions). According to CBP data, almost all UAC apprehended at the Southwest border originate from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries-Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. (Figure 1.) In FY2011, Mexican children accounted for 73% of UAC apprehensions, while those from the Northern Triangle countries accounted for 27%. By FY2019, the proportions had flipped, with Mexican nationals CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Membersand Committeesof Congress

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