The number of unaccompanied minors dwarfs the number of family separations at the border

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said on Twitter that the number of migrant children who arrived at the border alone, without their families, is much higher than the number forcibly separated from their families at the border. “I wonder if the journalists working this story are aware that the overwhelming majority of immigrant minors separated from their families arrived at the border without families,” he tweeted Wednesday. “There are far more children separated from parents who arrive that way then there are children separated at the border,” he elaborated in a tweet Thursday.
Verdict: True
The government identified 2,634 migrant minors in its care who were forcibly separated from adults. Several times as many alien minors in its care arrived in the U.S. without an adult. The U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended over 40,000 unaccompanied minors so far in fiscal year 2018.
Fact Check:
Hume mentioned the large number of unaccompanied immigrant minors at the border in response to news reports about the number of children reunited with their families or other adults after being forcibly separated from them. He is not the first to point to the high number of minors who arrived at the border alone in response to outrage over the forced separations. “80% of minors cared for by HHS arrived in the US alone, unaccompanied, without a parent. They were not separated by the government,” the White House said in a June tweet. President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, pointed to the high number of unaccompanied alien minors caught during President Barack Obama’s presidency. “Fact: Over 90,000 kids were detained under Obama. And no one cared,” he said in a tweet in June...Government agencies identified about 2,634 alien minors – 103 children under age 5 and 2,531 ages 5 to 17 (some reports say 2,551) – in its care who had been forcibly separated from adults. That figure includes migrant minors separated at the border as a result of the zero-tolerance policy and those who were separated for other reasons. HHS noted that on June 20, 83 percent of alien minors in its care – 9,834 children – arrived in the U.S. without a parent or guardian and that 17 percent – 2,053 children – were in its care due to zero tolerance enforcement. The White House tweet referenced this figure...MORE