President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services has released 41,998 unaccompanied alien children into U.S. communities in the first ten months of FY2016, amounting to roughly 138 children released per day.
With only two months to go before the end of the fiscal year, this puts the administration on par to reach the number of child releases set in FY2014 during the massive immigration surge at the Southwest U.S. border.
That year, the administration reported it released 53,515 unaccompanied children into the United States to live with sponsors, often a family member also living in the U.S. illegally.
According to HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement, the number of children apprehended at the Southwest U.S. border and released into the U.S. thus far in FY2016 is also more than 14,000 children beyond those released in FY2015, when 27,840 children were placed with sponsors.
This brings the total number of illegal alien children released into the United States over the last three years to 123,353, by ORR’s data.
Despite the president's assurance that the U.S. border is not open to illegal immigration, the crisis at the Southwest U.S. border is far from over. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported apprehending another 48,311 illegal alien children at the border so far in FY2016, not counting those caught in August.
Another 58,720 members of family units have also been apprehended as of July 31.
ORR data shows the vast majority of children sent to sponsors have been shipped to communities in California, Florida, Maryland, Texas, Virginia and New York.
These children are separate from the 9,500 applications the Obama administration has received from U.S.-based parents seeking to bring their Central American children to the United States via the president’s Central American minors program. Secretary of State Jeh Johnson recently announced the program, originally touted as a safe pathway to the United States for children, has been expanded to include parents, relatives and children over 21.