The Facts Show: Few Children Are Deported

Thousands of children from Central America are undertaking a perilous journey to the U.S. border despite warnings from the U.S. that they will be sent back. In fact, many will get to stay.

Data from immigration courts, along with interviews with the children and their advocates, show that few minors are sent home and many are able to stay for years in the U.S., if not permanently. That presents a deep challenge for President Barack Obama and lawmakers as they try to shore up an overburdened deportation system.

In fiscal year 2013, immigration judges ordered 3,525 migrant children to be deported, according to Justice Department figures. Judges allowed an additional 888 to voluntarily return home without a formal removal order.

Those figures pale in comparison with the number of children apprehended by the border patrol. In each of the last five years, at least 23,000 and as many as 47,000 juveniles have been apprehended. Those totals include Mexicans, who often are sent home without formal deportation proceedings and so may not be among those ordered removed last year.

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Last fiscal year, immigration judges reached a decision in 6,437 juvenile cases, according to the court data. About two-thirds of the minors were ordered deported or allowed to leave the country voluntarily, and 361 were given legal status. In most other cases, the judge terminated the case, meaning the child wasn't ordered out of the U.S. but wasn't given explicit permission to stay, either.

Separate data from the Department of Homeland Security show that in fiscal 2013, about 1,600 children were actually returned to their home countries—less than half the number who were ordered removed—suggesting that some are evading deportation orders.

The head of the immigration court system told a Senate hearing this week that 46% of juveniles failed to appear at their hearings between the start of the 2014 fiscal year last Oct. 1 and the end of June. And court figures show that last year, more than 2,600 out of about 6,400 orders were entered without the juvenile present—in absentia.

Simply reaching a decision in these cases can take years, and the backlog is growing worse. As of June 30, there were 41,832 pending juvenile cases, up from about 30,000 nine months earlier. In some jurisdictions, it is common for court dates to be set two or three years out.

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