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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 9 Juli 2021

Families fostering migrant kids offer what shelters cannot

(AP) — Chris Umphlett from their church made a Mexican border alone this Other families were not
and his family worked home-cooked Honduran spring, most were sent to The risk of psychological equipped to take in someone
in small ways to help the meal of meat and red beans large-scale emergency shel- and emotional harm grows while they worked at home
12-year-old girl from and tres leches cake, which ters that the Biden admin- the longer kids are in shel- with kids doing virtual learn-
Honduras — who barely got a smile. istration quickly opened at ters, according to a June 22 ing, like the Umphletts, who
uttered a word when she military bases, convention federal court filing by the at- did not take anyone until
arrived after crossing the “I imagine her first introduc- centers, and fairgrounds. torneys monitoring the care March of this year.
Mexican border alone — tion to the U.S. was prob- of minors in U.S. custody as
feel comfortable in their ably not super friendly, was This 12-year-old was one of part of a longstanding court But providers, like the Lu-
Michigan home. probably confusing,” said the lucky ones, instead placed settlement. theran Immigration and
Umphlett, 37, who works with an American family Refugee Service, are seeing a
The couple and their four for a software company. “We while U.S. officials contacted At the end of May when huge increase in families in-
young children who live in tried to give her a better ex- and vetted her mother, who about 500 transitional foster terested in fostering migrant
the city of East Lansing in- perience.” lives in Texas. care beds were unoccupied, kids, providing an opportu-
vited her on walks and bike there were 5- and 6-year-old nity to seize, said its director
rides, and watched Disney As a record number of chil- Transitional foster homes, children who had spent more Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.
movies with Spanish sub- dren fled violence from Cen- where families are licensed to than a month at the shelters,
titles. A Honduran woman tral America and crossed the care for migrant children, are according to the court filing. “I truly believe if we invest
widely considered to be the and focus on building out
best option for kids in U.S. “What a child receives at a this network of prospective
custody, especially for minors shelter will never compare foster care parents, these
who have been traumatized, to the love of a parent caring homes can and should be the
are very young, pregnant or for a child,” said Kayla Park medium to long-term solu-
are teen parents and require of Samaritas, the provider tion so we don’t have to rely
extra emotional support. that connects the Umphlett on influx facilities in the fu-
family with migrant chil- ture,” she said.
Yet hundreds of transitional dren. “They might tuck them
foster care beds at family in bed at night or maybe the The Honduran girl stayed
homes and small group fa- family’s children play with at the Umphlett home for
cilities are not being used, ac- them. That kind of human one month until mid-April.
cording to government data. interaction is so necessary Two months passed before
Four providers told The As- and it can’t be replicated in a Umphletts got another re-
sociated Press that they have shelter.” ferral for another Central
licensed foster families ready American child.
to take children. Two provid- The Biden administration
ers said about a third of avail- said it’s not a matter of sim- “I hope they are sending kids
able beds over the past month ply filling beds. Some sib- to foster homes before send-
were not used. The others lings might have to go to a ing them to a convention
declined to specify. shelter to stay together or to center,” Umphlett said. “A
have the space to quarantine home with a family is always
Providers say interest in fos- if someone tests positive for better than a mass camp, even
tering migrant kids is boom- the coronavirus, so there is if you’re being well cared for
ing with Americans getting a need to leave beds unoc- and not neglected.”
vaccinated and virus-related cupied to deal with circum-
restrictions being lifted on stances as they arise, Health Umphlett’s family saw a
daily life. They are urging the and Human Service Secre- transformation in the shy
government to move more tary Xavier Becerra told re- Honduran girl during her
kids into foster homes. porters last week. stay. “At first she was so shy,
she wouldn’t take to any-
“The United States rejected “You take a hit trying to thing,” he said.
large-scale, institutional care completely maximize your
for children more than 110 space,” Becerra said when With time she opened up and
years ago, and we shouldn’t asked about the unoccupied joined in on bike rides and
accept it today for children licensed beds after visiting a playing with Magna-Tiles,
who are seeking protection shelter housing 800 children colorful magnetic blocks.
within our borders. Chil- at Fort Bliss Army base near The family speaks limited
dren belong in families,” said El Paso, Texas, that has been Spanish but used Google
Chris Palusky, head of Betha- plagued by complaints. translate and body language
ny Christian Services, which to communicate. Two weeks
places migrant children in Providers agree foster care is after her arrival to their home,
foster homes. more complicated for place- the girl not only cracked a
ments because age and gen- smile but joked around with
While there are not enough der must be taken into ac- his wife.
families licensed yet to take count, especially in homes
in the thousands of children where the migrant kids The day she left, the girl
in US custody, advocates say might be sharing rooms with who barely uttered a word
the homes could take many the family’s children, like in when she arrived, hugged
of the kids under the age of 12 the home of the Umphletts, Umphlett and his wife.
and other vulnerable youth, who only accept girls 12 and
such as pregnant teens, now younger. Still, it wasn’t a tearful good-
at the government’s unli- bye.
censed shelters. At the Los And the pandemic restricted
Angeles County fairgrounds things further. Many families “We go into this with the
in Pomona, last week there did not want to take a child mindset that the goal is to get
were some 300 children un- directly from the border for you to your parent or family
der the age of 12 among the fear of being exposed to the member as soon as possible,”
nearly 1,400 minors housed coronavirus. he said. “So it’s a happy mo-
there. ment.”