By Patricia Giovine

EL PASO, Texas – Mexican children that cross the border illegally are held up to four months in shelters because of an erroneous interpretation of a new law against human trafficking.

The William Wilberforce Act, or HR7311, which went into effect in March, puts particular emphasis on Mexican minors that are detained by Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Mexican minors were previously repatriated 24 to 48 hours after being detained by immigration agents, but now spend four months in shelters where previously only minors from Central and South America were held,” attorney Ileana Holguin, director of Services for Immigrants and Refugees for the Catholic diocese of El Paso, told Efe.

The law says that minors who travel unaccompanied or with someone who is not a close family member can be detained and turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The law requires the authorities to make sure that the minor to be repatriated was not the victim of human trafficking, and since CBP inspectors are not competent to do so, they send them to shelters for undocumented minors,” the attorney said, adding that most Mexican children in shelters are between the ages of 3 and 14.

The CBP spokesman in El Paso, Roger Maier, said that personnel from his agency can only hand over children to parents or guardians who are in the United States.

“The Department of Health and Human Services in charge of the shelters for underage immigrants can take over the child’s care and maintenance,” he said.

Holguin said that previously Mexican minors that had been detained were interviewed by staff from the Mexican Consulate in El Paso and later handed over at international crossings to Mexican authorities who took charge of sending them home.

“Right now we don’t have specific numbers, but we can say that the number of Mexican minors in immigrant shelters, previously not more than one or two, has shot up considerably,” she said.

The Mexican consul in El Paso, Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, expressed his concern for the delay in repatriation and spoke of the worry it caused the children’s parents.

“We’re troubled because repatriation currently takes so much time that minors can be harmed psychologically,” the diplomat said.

In his opinion the problem stems from how the new law is interpreted by different authorities watching the border.

“While some agencies see a difference between what is the contraband of minors and human trafficking, for others they’re all the same thing,” he said.

Holguin said that in the case of contraband, someone pays to have a minor brought into the United States who is then handed over to his family, while in the case of human trafficking the minor is taken against his will to be exploited later for sex or forced labor.

The Wilberforce Act says that every year thousands of foreign minors arrive in the United States unaccompanied by adults, and among them may be children who have been trafficked, persecuted in their home countries or submitted to violence, abuse and neglect.

Holguin said that the new procedure is not bad for everyone, and while it may be detrimental to minors who have no way of staying in the country legally, it benefits those who for some reason will be able to obtain a visa.

“Previously Mexican minors were automatically sent back to Mexico without a hearing before a judge, but now they can fight in court if they have a family member in this country or have been the victims of violence in Mexico,” she said. EFE