Child migrant crisis: at least 85 percent of minors released into US

While President Obama has warned Central American parents not to send their children to the United States because they will be returned, at least 85 percent of boys and girls detained recently for illegally crossing the Southwest border have been released from shelters here. Since October, the Department of Homeland Security has referred 50,688 children to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the latter agency, which is tasked with caring for unaccompanied children caught entering the country. Within the same time period, "43,209 minors have been discharged" from federal custody, says HHS spokesman Kenneth Wolfe in an e-mail. He also cited a 96 percent figure for the share of children who have been released to relatives in the US...more