Many children who took the harrowing trip across Mexico to the southern border of the United States have now found a temporary place to reside in Louisiana. Five parishes – the equivalent of counties in other states – have agreed to provide shelter for many of these children.
From January to July, the Federal Office of Refugee and Resettlement placed 173 children in East Baton Rouge Parish, 533 children in Jefferson Parish, 51 children in Lafayette Parish, 237 children in Orleans Parish and 54 children in St. Tammany Parish. This brings the total housed there to 1275. This compares to the total placed in private homes across the country of 37,477, the number of unaccompanied minors who are refugees from their own countries. Most of them come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, each of which rank high on the list of countries internationally with the most violence per capita.
While most of the sponsors of these immigrant refugees are family members, in many cases, church and other religious organizations have stepped in to provide care and shelter for these children. According to current statistics provided by the federal government, only California, Florida, Maryland and Texas have taken in more kids than the state of Louisiana.
The children will now live and go to school in these parishes until they go to their scheduled court appearances before immigration courts, many of them special courts which have been hastily established to handle the influx of these cases in the wake of these migrations. While the number of children making the trip peaked a few months ago, the number apprehended at the border in August dropped precipitously from the previous months as the measures taken to stem the tide appear to be taking effect.
The Shulman Law Group endeavors to ensure its clients be kept abreast of all significant developments relating to the process of naturalization to the United States including special procedures established to handle the cases of these children.
Edward Shulman, Esq, founder of The Shulman Law Group, LLC is a national speaker for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). AILA is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, and to advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice. In the course of Mr. Shulman’s involvement with AILA, he has been dedicated to educating other immigration attorneys about the import of helping intending immigrants to navigate a new cultural system. He meticulously follows all of the developments occurring in the battle over immigration reform so that he will be prepared to effectively assist his clients obtain residency if a new system is enacted.