More than 100,000 migrant boys and girls arrive unaccompanied at the México-US border and are detained

Text: Marcela Christmas Eve

Although in the last two years the detentions of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border of the United States have registered a slight decrease, they continue to number more than 100,000 annually since exceeding that figure as of 2021.

In addition to the fact that the arrests of girls and boys on the move have not had a significant decrease, the forced displacement of this population – which represents 26% of the total – has more than doubled since 2010.

According to the statistics of the border patrol (CBP) itself, the detentions of children on the southern border of the United States amounted to more than 146 thousand in fiscal year 2021 – which runs from October to October -, after having registered 80,634 in 2019 and just over 50,000 in 2018.

In addition to this, although slight decreases have been recorded in the last two years, the figure has not decreased from at least 100 thousand arrests of unaccompanied children each fiscal year on the México-United States border: in 2024 there have been 109 thousand 998 and in 2023 there were 137 thousand 275, while in 2022 the figure reached a peak with 152 thousand 057 cases.

All of this in a context in which in recent days, the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, confirmed that he will use the Armed Forces and invoke the figure of national emergency, with which he can exercise extraordinary powers, to carry out mass deportations of migrants, one of his campaign promises.

In addition to the thousands of arrests in recent years, according to an analysis by the organization Save the Children, the evolution of forced displacement of children has more than doubled since 2010, when 18.8 million were counted, while by 2023 there will be more 47.2 million, going from 26.6 million in 2015 and 33.2 in 2020.

The group recalled that worldwide, migrant children represent between 13 and 15% of the population in a situation of mobility, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25%. In addition, during 2021 more than 29 thousand boys and girls crossed the Darién Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama, but this rose to 40 thousand in 2022 and the same figure was recorded only in the first half of 2023.

“Our region has a higher proportion of child migration than the rest of the world and around 26% of the forcibly displaced people on our continent were girls and boys, which also shows us that this age group is one of the most vulnerable to forced displacement, and there are regions on our continent that present dynamics that are even more intense, harsh and complex,” said Nancy Ramírez, director of Political Advocacy and Global Issues at Save the Children México.

As highlighted during his participation in the International Early Childhood Forum 2024, organized by the Early Childhood Center of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, childhood in mobility, specifically that which corresponds to early childhood – from 0 to 6 years -, faces various challenges in this context of growing migration.

Among them, the most important are their greater vulnerability to preventable diseases, more exposure to accidents and physical injuries, lack of prenatal and postnatal care, deficiencies in the early detection of developmental disorders and lack of access to mental health.

However, these problems remain unresolved due to various obstacles documented by the organization: lack of knowledge of rights and legal barriers, linguistic and cultural barriers, distrust of authorities or service providers, discrimination and xenophobia, limitations in access to initial education and formal, lack of educational integration strategies, lack of recognition of the importance of initial education and challenges for immigration regularization.

“If the challenges are already great for girls and boys in our countries to access the goods, public services they need to achieve their development, and protection systems, for these girls and boys who are in constant mobility they are Even greater, the challenges are truly gigantic precisely because they are in constant movement and because the routes they take are through very dangerous or complex areas,” said Ramírez.

These areas can even become “invisible”, since the authorities do not reach them, there are not enough services or provision of any type of public goods, so one of the main consequences for early childhood in mobility is high vulnerability. to diseases that would be preventable with basic interventions such as vaccination or follow-up medical consultations.

“They are facing precarious conditions of hygiene and sanitation, because they lack sufficient and nutritious food, that is, if early childhood in itself is already vulnerable because it is at the critical moment for strengthening their immune system, girls and children who are mobile and who do not have access to these medical services and these basic supplies, since they are even more complex,” added the Save the Children specialist.

Added to this is the exposure to accidents and physical harm due to the characteristics of the journeys they make, particularly during the pregnancy period of women, who also give birth without prenatal and postnatal care. In turn, this leads to a lack of early detection of developmental disorders, since they do not access mental health services, whose attention is still not a priority, despite the fact that children go through complex traumas.

In addition to this, representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) added that the lack of information about the conditions and circumstances under which families migrate is high, which prevents specific interventions, and especially with regard to the first childhood, so the organization is devising routes to fill these information gaps and address issues related to children’s mental health and the consequences it can have throughout life.

Given this, Save the Children called, as part of the priority themes of the International Early Childhood Forum 2024, to promote – through national governments, but also international cooperation – safe spaces for early childhood and breastfeeding, a comprehensive protection route. at the federal level and with states, reforms to raise standards of protection for children on the move and specialized care guides.