LOS ANGELES — The vast majority of immigrant children who arrive alone at the U.S. border are placed by the government with adults who are in the country illegally, federal data show.
The government has long said that it places the children with family and friends regardless of immigration status. But since more children began arriving at the border in 2014, officials have not revealed how often those sponsors had legal papers.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Health and Human Services provided data showing that 80 percent of the 71,000 mostly Central American children placed between February 2014 and last September were sent to sponsors who were not here legally. Six percent were placed with adults who had temporary protected status, and 4 percent were sponsored by American citizens.
