Immigration: Portland agency to expand in response to surge of unaccompanied minors at Mexico border

Article author: 
Andrea Castillo
Article publisher: 
OregonLive.com
Article date: 
Monday, August 4, 2014
Article category: 
Oregon Issues
Medium
Article Body: 

When word got out last week that unaccompanied children from Central America would be arriving in Oregon, demonstrators zeroed in on the Portland nonprofit tasked with finding them long-term placement....

Federal officials subsequently confirmed that 50 children had been placed with sponsors in the state...

Refugee Resettlement, which falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contracts with Morrison to temporarily house unaccompanied minors in this state. The 50 children the federal agency placed with sponsors in Oregon were among those apprehended at the border from Jan. 1 to July 7. By comparison, 211 went to Washington state, eight to Idaho and 3,150 to California during that period.

Most local officials closest to the issue have refused to talk....

But immigration experts estimate that hundreds of unaccompanied minors have been processed in the Portland area this year alone....

A review of job openings posted online last month shows that Morrison is opening a new Refugee Resettlement shelter in downtown Portland...

Morrison operates three locations for unaccompanied minors...

Morrison received nearly $3.7 million this year in federal grants to house unaccompanied immigrant children...

The Refugee Resettlement office has $868 million dedicated to unaccompanied immigrant children this year, and received an additional $44 million due to the surge.

Wait times

... In Oregon, immigrants had to wait 1,178 days on average -- or more than three years -- to get their cases resolved in court, based on data in October 2013. That was the second longest in the nation at the time, shorter only than Nebraska. Now immigration courts are speeding up hearings for the tens of thousands of Central American children caught on the U.S. border after criticism about the backlogged system, giving each child an initial court hearing within three weeks.
-- Associated Press