Foster Program for Immigrants Criticized

The International Educational Services, Inc. is shown Thursday, July 19, 2007,in Brownsville Texas, as a van drops off children at the entrance. The service takes care and placement of illegal immigrant children in foster homes where they live until they can be united with a "sponsor," a parent, relative or family friend within the United States. (AP Photo/Joe Hermosa) (Joe Hermosa - AP)

BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- The strip mall storefront of International Educational Services opens up into cheerful offices and classrooms decorated with American flags. Open a classroom door, and dozens of smiling children look up from their workbooks for a heavily accented group "good morning."

The children are illegal immigrants, and all but one are from Central America. In the afternoon, they will go to foster homes, where they will live until they can be united with a "sponsor" _ a parent, relative or family friend within the United States.

It's a better scenario than they would have faced in the past, when children caught crossing the border were locked up like adults. But critics say the majority will eventually fade into the nation's illegal immigrant subculture, easily becoming lost in a maze of homeland security and social service agencies.

In fact, 68 percent of the juveniles never appear in court, according to a 2004 analysis by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said it was up to the sponsor to bring children to their proceedings.

"This is fraud-prone and this is an inducement to illegal immigration," said Don Barnett, a fellow at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. "There's no question that smugglers are totally aware of this program and know how to use it."

Barnett found that some children are being turned over to non-relatives because their blood relatives are illegal immigrants who fear being deported if they present themselves.

Smugglers are telling parents to separate from the children once they cross the Rio Grande, he said. Even if they are caught by the Border Patrol the children are all but guaranteed to be in a safe, comfortable home within a day or so and placed with a relative or friend within a few weeks or months.

The parents can meanwhile seek "voluntary departure," which means they can leave without a deportation order on their record _ which would prohibit them from entering the United States within the next 10 years and subject them to jail time if they are caught. They can then try to qualify for a visa or attempt to sneak in again.

If they were caught together, the entire family would be detained at one of the federal government's new family facilities, such as the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor that has been criticized for prison-like conditions. There would be no chance of avoiding removal proceedings.

Sandra De La Garza, lead case manager at the International Educational Services foster program, said she had heard of families purposely breaking up to avoid Hutto. And staffers said there was no doubt the smugglers and immigrant families knew about their agency.

Children at the Brownsville facility seemed upbeat about the whole process, saying they were happy at their temporary homes.

One, a 13-year-old from Honduras, said she thought the journey was fun.