Families charged steep fees to transport children from migrant shelters: report
Source: The Hill
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 07/01/18 06:58 PM EDT
Families are being charged high fees and forced to deal with various bureaucratic hurdles to transport children from migrant shelters, according to a report from The New York Times.
The publication spoke to various family sponsors trying to obtain the release of migrant children being detained by federal immigration authorities but facing a series of obstacles, including fees of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Sponsorship candidates have to show various documents to prove they are related to the migrants they are looking to transport, and that they are financially capable, according to the Times.
The documents include proof of income, rent records and utility bills.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/395101-families-charged-steep-fees-to-transport-children-from-migrant
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Sponsors of Migrant Children Face Steep Transport Fees and Red Tape
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/us/migrant-children-families.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
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Brenda Garcia sees her 7-year-old son, Kevin, for the first time in 34 days at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday morning. Garcia paid more than $500 to fly the boy to Washington so they could be reunited.CreditRyan Christopher Jones for The New York Times
By Miriam Jordan
July 1, 2018
LOS ANGELES — Marlon Parada, a construction worker in Los Angeles, already was worried when he got an urgent call from his cousin in Honduras, asking if he would agree to take in the cousin’s 14-year-old daughter. She’d been taken from her mother while attempting to cross the border and detained in Houston, he said. She couldn’t be released unless a family member agreed to take her in.
Mr. Parada, an immigrant himself who is supporting his wife and three daughters on $3,000 a month, wondered how he could afford to take on another responsibility. Then he learned that he would have to pay $1,800 to fly Anyi and an escort from Houston to Los Angeles.
“It caught me by surprise when they demanded all that money. I asked them to just put her on a bus, but they wouldn’t,” said Mr. Parada, who scrambled to amass the cash from friends and wired it to the operator of the migrant shelter where Anyi was being held.
But that was only one of the hurdles he would have to surmount to take custody of the girl. Families hoping to win release for the thousands of migrant children being held by federal immigration authorities are finding they have to navigate an exhausting, intimidating — and sometimes expensive — thicket of requirements before the youngsters can be released.
Candidates for sponsorship must produce a plethora of documents to prove they are legitimate relatives and financially capable sponsors, including rent receipts, utility bills and proof of income. Home visits are increasingly common as part of the process. And once those conditions are met, many families must pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars in airfare to bring the children home..................................
