This article was first published by the Colorado Sun.
Unaccompanied immigrant children and the Coloradans who offered to house them are at the center of a rift between Gov. Jared Polis and a top official at the state Department of Labor and Employment.
In an ongoing lawsuit against the governor, the head of the state’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics is arguing that it’s wrong for Polis to make him turn over addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE subpoenaed the information about the sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children and Polis decided the agency would comply.
ICE named 35 people in its subpoena. Court filings in the whistleblower case reveal that, based on the state labor department’s research, there are six sponsors of unaccompanied minor immigrants who have personal information contained in the unemployment insurance division. It’s not clear what other records would be turned over.
The case has raised questions about how many unaccompanied immigrant children are in Colorado, how they arrived and who is taking care of them.
Two types of unaccompanied children – those who entered legally or illegally
The federal government defines unaccompanied immigrant children, usually teenagers, as those under 18 who entered the country without a parent or guardian.
The government divides them into two groups. Unaccompanied children are those who came to the country illegally. Unaccompanied refugee minors are those who entered the country with a legal immigration status as a refugee, meaning they were fleeing a county where they were unsafe, abused or persecuted.
Children with refugee status
The distinction matters because refugee children are eligible for a federal program that places them in foster care and, in Colorado, their placements are supervised by the child welfare division of the Colorado Department of Human Services.
As of this month, there are 75 unaccompanied refugee children in Colorado, cared for by sponsors who are essentially serving as foster parents. County child welfare departments in Colorado are required to provide face-to-face check-ins with these refugee children at least once per month.
Children who entered without lawful status
Children without refugee status are assigned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which provides them with case managers. Those case managers interview and vet prospective sponsors to “assess whether it’s an appropriate and safe placement,” according to state child welfare officials, and routinely do not notify local child welfare authorities when children are placed.
Children in this category were apprehended by immigration authorities at the southern border or discovered after crossing the border.
The federal program has found sponsors for more than 800,000 unaccompanied immigrant children nationwide since 2003. The number has jumped to more than 23,000 nationwide this year from less than 8,000 per year about a decade ago.
According to data from the federal department, there were 407 immigrant children placed with sponsors in Colorado from October through May after the children had entered the country illegally and were apprehended. That included 132 in Arapahoe County and 64 in Denver County. The federal agency does not break out data for counties where fewer than 50 children have been placed with sponsors.
