Dozens of unaccompanied minors ending up in Utah


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Some of the unaccompanied illegal immigrant children live in Utah foster homes.

They hail from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Illegal immigrant teenagers travel thousands of miles without their parents.

“Most of them come when they’re older teenagers, just because it’s such a dangerous way to get to the country,” said Julianna Potter, Refugee Foster Care Program Manager, Catholic Community Services.

Potter said eight of these teenagers now live with foster families in the Salt Lake metro area. They wait years to plead their case before a judge in a hearing to explain why home is no longer an option for them. Before they arrived in Utah, Potter said they had already determined it wasn’t safe for those eight teens in the foster care program to return to the countries they’ve fled.

“And so they were granted a special status that gives them a lot of the same rights as refugees have,” said Potter. “There’s a lot of waiting, a lot of paperwork, a lot of vetting their stories.”

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department reports 67 unaccompanied and undocumented minors have found temporary shelter in Utah. Potter said some of them have reunited with family in Utah.

“These kids have such heartbreaking back-stories, but they in a lot of ways have become very normal American teenagers,” said Potter. “They go to high school. Some of them go to college. They've become part of their foster families.”

Click for larger view
Click for larger view (Photo: KSL TV)

The federal government funds the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services to receive 1,200 refugees a year. Potter explained that the Catholic Community Services Refugee Foster Care program accommodates 85 foster kids and currently the program has 68 children. “So we can take about 15 more kids,” said Potter.

Potter also said Catholic Community Services has been receiving about two calls a day from Utah families who are volunteering to become foster parents to refugee children, some of them part of this group of unaccompanied undocumented immigrant children. In addition to the current refugee foster care parents, Potter said there are about 30 more families who have volunteered to take in more kids should the need arise.

While there is no immediate solution to take care of the estimated 40,000 undocumented children who have travelled alone to the U.S., Potter said the U.S. government can do more to help children from Latin America. She said many of them are trying to escape violence against their families and themselves.

“I would push the U.S. government to open up more refugee spots for Central America,” said Potter. “Right now there are only 5,000, and most of them go to Cubans and Haitians.”

Despite the safe haven many of these kids find here in the U.S., Potter also said she would encourage families sending these kids to America, undocumented and unaccompanied, not to take the risk.

“The most important thing for people to remember is that these kids have been through so much and to have some compassion,” said Potter. “I would just encourage people to treat these kids as children and as victims.”

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahFamily
Nkoyo Iyamba

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast