Obama Administration: Unaccompanied Minors Crisis Cresting

By Julianne Hing Sep 17, 2014

The child migration crisis of this past summer has abated, according to the Obama administration. On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that "significant progress" had been made in stemming the flow of unaccompanied children crossing into the U.S., ABC reported.

Some 3,100 children migrating alone were apprehended at the border in August, a steep dropoff from the 10,000 youth who were caught in both May and June of this year. "It is now five months later, and the number of children arriving and apprehended at our border is dramatically lower than it was five months ago," Mayorkas said at the National Press Club, ABC reported. 

Whether that drop is due to the summer heat or beefed-up enforcement and pressure the Obama administration has put on Mexican and Central American governments is unclear, Mayorkas acknowledged.

More than 66,000 children and families arrived between October 2013 and August of this year, and already-backlogged immigration courts have struggled to keep up with the new caseload. Cities like New York and San Francisco have pledged money to provide support and legal representation to migrants who otherwise have no legal right to representation as they navigate immigration court.