What happens when kids cross the US border alone? Could they end up in NC?

The opening of a facility to house migrant children in North Carolina has raised concerns about what happens to minors once they cross the U.S. border without an adult.

Known as an influx care facility, the campus is in northwest Greensboro on the 100-acre site of the former American Hebrew Academy, which closed in 2019 after 18 years as an international boarding school.

For years, politicians from the local to the federal level have been asking U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to explain how his agency will keep Greensboro safe and look out for the safety of the children under his care. They say they’re frustrated by the lack of answers.

“If everything they were doing was above-board, and there’s no concern for the community and there is no concern for those minors, then why not share that information with the duly elected representatives or the people that live in that area?” said Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, during an interview with McClatchy.

Becca Asaki shares Hudson’s concerns for the safety of the children.

Asaki is the director of organizing at Tsuru for Solidarity, an organization created by Japanese American and Japanese Latin American World War II concentration camp survivors and descendants looking to end detention sites and support affected immigrants.

She said that at a facility in Fort Bliss, Texas, run under an HHS contract, multiple whistleblowers came forward and disclosed both physical and sexual abuse happening inside the facility, adding to the trauma many already faced just trying to get to the U.S. border.

She pointed to a 67-page report that details poor conditions of the various centers where minors without legal status are housed in based on interviews with the children.

“The detention of children is a failed policy,” Asaki said. “It doesn’t deter migration. It causes irreparable harm to the whole family, but particularly these children.”

So we looked into whether people should be worried about the safety of either the children who could be housed in the facility, or the people who live nearby.

Here’s what we found.

Crossing the border

There are many reasons children cross the U.S. border alone. Some have been trafficked. Others are escaping danger. Still others are hoping to earn money in the United States to send home.

Then there are those looking to be reunited with family members.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 places these migrant children under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Council on Foreign Relations reports that most children are found at or near the border and often turn themselves in.

But then there are those who do cross the border with an adult, be that a grandparent, uncle, aunt, sibling or other family member. If that adult is not the child’s legal guardian, they are separated by immigration officials, Asaki said.

“Part of the challenge and part of the concern that we have is that these unaccompanied minors are not being connected to or turned over to their family members in a timely manner,” she added.

On average, it takes 27 days for a sponsor to be identified, according to federal data.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that any amount of time in detention for a child is traumatic, let alone the 27-day average.

A child is placed into foster care if ORR expects the minor to have more than a four-month stay in the agency’s custody.

Screening and adding restrictions

HHS states on its website that children taken into custody are screened for many things, from illnesses to safety concerns.

Most often, the children are housed in a shelter facility. There are many of these shelters around the country. The Greensboro center and two other influx care facilities are meant to serve as overflow facilities if the main shelters run out of beds to house the minors.

Some children are placed in a more restrictive facility:

▪ If the child is convicted of, or if law enforcement would be able to charge the minor with, a violent crime, they are placed in a secure-care facility, the most restrictive housing operated by ORR.

▪ If a child is disruptive and prevents the normal function of a shelter, is at risk of running away, shows a pattern of severe behavioral problems, has a nonviolent criminal history, or is able to step down from the secure facility, they are housed in a staff-secured facility, which is slightly less restrictive, but allows for close-monitoring.

Asaki said children who experience abuse often act out, from refusing to get out of bed, to tantrums, to angry outbursts.

And at other sites, she said, they’ve been punished by being written up and sent to the more restrictive facilities, making it harder and the time longer for them to be released to a sponsor. Sometimes children have been reported as a flight risk for suggesting they want to be with their family, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights states in a report about the overuse of writing up migrant children.

Asaki said she’s already seen job postings for the Greensboro location that include creating these reports as part of the job responsibility.

Risk assessments

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said she’s been told that the city’s facility would often be the last step in a process to get children reunited with a family member or parent, and so by the time they reach the city they’ve been highly vetted.

Immediately upon entry into a facility, COVID-19, physical and mental health issues and dental problems are addressed. There are also screenings to see if the child is a victim of trafficking, has a history of criminal behavior, gang activity, behavioral issues or violence, special needs or disabilities, substance abuse; is or has been pregnant, or is at risk for being bullied or running away, according to a performance work statement published as part of hiring contractors.

Vaughan said she feels that there is a good plan in place when it comes to security on site.

The performance work assessment describes security plans that include camera monitoring, blocking the campus from public view, and having security checkpoints and barriers that prevent anyone from trying to force their way onto the property.

Shelter facilities

Each of the shelter facilities are supposed to offer minors access to mental, physical and dental health care, education — six hours a day, five days per week — recreation, clothing, hygiene products, case management, unification services and pro bono legal work, according to ORR.

But Asaki said she’s heard stories from children housed there that tell another story.

“There’s unsanitary conditions where children are not given access to personal hygiene and are kept in soiled clothes for weeks,” Asaki said.

ORR says these children must be treated like kids and not prisoners. They wear everyday clothes, not uniforms, the agency says.

HHS says it tries its best to keep sets of siblings together while they wait to locate a sponsor for them.

HHS has a YouTube playlist that takes people inside these closely guarded facilities.

The bedrooms leave a lot to be desired, with rows and rows of bunk beds packed inside rooms. Based on what’s shown in the YouTube videos, children can choose their bedding and decorate their walls.

The videos also show children being educated, playing soccer and video games, and eating corn dogs and french fries.

There are decorated classrooms, and health care facilities with superheros on the wall.

But Asaki pointed to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which interviewed detained children who reported sleeping on cement floors, nowhere to bathe, open toilets, insufficient food and water and no access to attorneys, among other things.

Finding a sponsor

Caseworkers are supposed to run background checks and home studies before placing a child into the sponsor’s care.

Sponsors are typically a parent or another family member already living in the United States.

A sponsor is required to enroll the child into school and ensure the child attends all immigration hearings.

And in the event that the child is deported, the sponsor must agree that they would be willing to take the child to ICE.

The caseworker is supposed to check on the children after 30 days.

Pressure to release children

But Hudson pointed to several investigations that made him fear for the safety of the children once they’re released from custody.

A New York Times investigation found that HHS is under pressure from the Biden administration to reduce the number of days children remain in its custody. ORR states on its website that shorter stays are a goal.

That has caused caseworkers to rush vetting sponsors, the newspaper reported.

The investigation further found that HHS lost contact with a third of migrant children who left HHS custody and that around two-thirds of unaccompanied minors end up working full-time jobs, often in violation of child labor laws.

NBC reported on an HHS audit that found 344 unaccompanied minors were released to nonfamily sponsors with three or more unaccompanied children in their homes, raising concerns about whether children are being exploited for child labor.

“I have a lot of concerns about the safety of these children,” Hudson said.

NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com