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WASHINGTON, D.C. - As child migrants from Central America filter into the immigration court system, some lawmakers have raised an alarm that as many as 90 percent could skip out on their court dates and disappear into the United States without a backward look.
But the reality is that number is much lower. In fact, over the last nine years, between 31 and 38 percent of child immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras failed to appear in court, according to research conducted at Syracuse University.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told the PBS “News Hour” earlier this month that 90 percent of child migrants are no shows in court. And in an appearance on Senate panel this month, Juan P. Osuna, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, estimated 46 percent of juveniles don’t make their court dates.
However, recently released figures paint a much different picture.
From 2005 through June 2014, about 31 percent of Guatemalan children were no shows in court, according to EOIR case information gathered by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data organization at Syracuse University.
Among Honduran children, 38 percent didn’t appear, according to calculations based on TRAC data. And 36 percent of children from El Salvador were no shows.
According to TRAC, the overall figure for absent juveniles was 31 percent.
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