Migrant kids traveling alone increasingly cross into the U.S. through San Diego

Migrant children traveling without their parents are increasingly crossing into the U.S. through San Diego — a shift that raises questions about the federal government’s preparedness as it faces a new mandate to quickly process and relocate children in unofficial outdoor holding areas along the border. 

Between October and February, the first five months of the federal fiscal year, border officials encountered unaccompanied minors in San Diego more than 4,000 times — a number on pace to surpass the 7,200 during the previous year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. Those numbers include both children who crossed through ports of entry as well as other parts of the border. 

The increase in arrivals of kids traveling alone, though down overall from previous years, is in line with a recent westward shift in migration along the southwest border as Mexico steps up patrols and other immigration enforcement, according to Ariel Ruiz Soto, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 

“Mexican enforcement is shifting the way that traditional immigration routes are happening, and that in addition to cartel influence in Mexico is changing how migrants arrive at the border with more coming to San Diego at this time, though that may not necessarily be the case for future months,” Ruiz Soto said. 

That shift is happening as a federal judge ordered the government to “expeditiously” process and relocate children who cross into the U.S. and end up in unofficial holding areas in southeast San Diego’s County’s desert or between the border fences in San Ysidro. 

Over the past few months, migrants, including children, have waited hours to days in those holding areas to be processed by Border Patrol with little food, water, shelter or access to medical care. 

Volunteers who provide aid to migrants have documented dire conditions there: migrants who had gone so long without food they ate leaves, kids they feared were hypothermic after bracing rain and wind overnight, and hundreds who spent as many as seven days waiting to be picked up. 

Judge Dolly Gee’s decision is the latest in a decades-old lawsuit settlement known as the Flores Settlement Agreement which established standards for detaining migrant children and puts the case under Gee’s supervision to ensure compliance. 

“The effect, we’re hoping, is that kids are not spending multiple hours or days or nights in these really dangerous situations,” said Melissa Adamson, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, which serves as co-counsel on the Flores case. 

Questions remain, however, about how Border Patrol will carry out the recent order. CBP, which oversees Border Patrol, has yet to issue a formal statement, but told CBS it is reviewing the judge’s decision. The government has the option to appeal the order. 

CBP did not respond to inewsource’s requests for comment. 

Lilian Serrano, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, has already noticed more children traveling alone to the holding areas on the border, where she provides aid regularly. 

“We see (unaccompanied minors) daily, which wasn’t the case before — and multiple, usually, in one day,” Serrano said. 

The increase in migrant children traveling to the U.S. alone via San Diego also raises concerns for other reasons, particularly over what happens to migrant children after they are processed and released by authorities. 

Migrant children seeking protection in the U.S. must prove to an immigration judge why they should be allowed to stay, and studies show that they are much more likely to win their cases if they are represented by an attorney through their proceedings. 

But the government does not provide lawyers in immigration court as it does in criminal court, and the demand for pro bono legal representation far outpaces what nonprofit organizations like Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND, can provide. 

“Our best guesstimate is that about less than half the kids have lawyers to help them through their cases. And that’s just because there’s not enough to go around,” said Jennifer Podkul, vice president for policy and advocacy at KIND. 

Podkul said the kids arriving alone to the U.S. have “high vulnerability and great need” and often are victims of abuse, human trafficking or other violence. 

“This is a kid who felt forced to undertake a really dangerous and expensive journey on their own without the support and protection of a loving parent or a legal guardian,” she said.