Immigration Crisis Summary

• The immigration crisis in 2014 refers to an outpouring of unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
• Increasing numbers of children fleeing violence and insecurity in their Central American and Mexican communities are seeking refuge form violence and poverty in the United States
• Many of these immigrants are asylum seekers fleeing war, gangs, or persecution, sex tracking victims, or slavery in their home countries
• Violence is a leading factor forcing unaccompanied children to immigrate to the United States
• Approximately 8,000 immigrant children under the age of 18, enter into the United States per year without legal documentation, parent, or a guardian
• The majority of these unaccompanied children where from the Northern Triangle, a region of Central America.
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• In 2013, many unaccompanied minors crossed into the Rio Grande causing problems for an unprepared United States
• By 2014, the number of unaccompanied minors had increased resulting in the United States facing a crisis with meeting the immediate need for food and shelter for these minors
• As a result of the unmanageable needs and demands of the crisis, the federal government stepped in and President Obama directed the Homeland Security to address the humanitarian crisis
• The Wilberforce Act of 2008 that gave substantial rights to unaccompanied minors who illegally immigrated from countries, was appropriate for managing the legal aspects of the