Pres. Obama’s 2017 proposed budget includes $1.3 billion in benefits for unaccompanied children who illegally cross the U.S. border. Around 75,000 minors are expected to cross this year, meaning $17, 613 would be set aside for each UAC while the average Social Security benefit is only $14,772.
According to the Center of Immigration Studies (CIS) this is double what the federal government spent on unaccompanied children in 2010. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service report shows that the number of unaccompanied children coming across the southwest border has increased 78% from FY 2015 to FY 2016.
Many of these children make the journey to join family members already living in the U.S. illegally. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that around 80% of the unaccompanied children that were placed between February 2014 and September 2015 were released “to sponsors who are in the United States illegally.”
A recent DHS intelligence report showed that 60% of the family units apprehended at the border said that current U.S. immigration policies influenced their decision to come to the U.S.
Read more on this story at The Washington Examiner.
