Those looking to legally immigrate to the U.S. with their families while living in Atlanta or face the potential for deportation may not know how to separate fact from fiction. Confusion and anxiety can mount from believing myths.
KIND provides a way to cut through untruths to get to the truth of the matter regarding crossing the border with a family. Hopefully, it gives immigrants the information they need to keep their families together and enjoy a positive outcome.
Myth: Parents are better off traveling to the border alone and sending money to their kids
The truth is that families often look to cross the border to escape potentially life-threatening circumstances. Even if parents were to send money to their kids, money is not always enough to get kids out of threatening circumstances.
On a related note, immigrant parents do not always send money back to Mexico. As CNN points out, it is Central American families that are the most commonly apprehended at the U.S. border.
Myth: Parents in ICE custody and their kids are soon reunited
When parents go into ICE custody, their kids become unaccompanied and find themselves sent to far-flung refugee resettlement shelters. A lack of proper procedures makes it increasingly difficult for families to reunite once separated.
Myth: Children in federal custody go free in 20 days
While there are limits on how long accompanied kids stay in unlicensed facilities, those limits go out the window when it comes to licensed Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities. Instead, children stay at facilities for as long as it takes to place them safely.
It is more common for border agents to apprehend families rather than single adults. Along with new difficulties surrounding the different type of migrants come new myths to break through.
