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The international border that separates the United States in Mexico seems to grow exponentially in the public's interest the closer the U.S. presidential elections loom. While it is often difficult to find actual information, misinformation about the region abounds — often calculated to shock, enrage, or annoy would-be voters, such as an article that showed up on JudicialWatch.org on 3 June 2016: The article was quickly picked up by other sites despite its lack of vetted information or named sources. It claimed that thanks to a lack of room in detention facilities, busloads of people in the U.S. illegally were getting put into buses and driven away to be released elsewhere in the country — and all on the taxpayer's dime: The Department of Homeland Security is denying this because it isn't happening — at least, not as described. The article quoted above is conflating illegal immigrants with refugees and asylum seekers, who often show up on the southern border of the United States because that is the most accessible route from South and Central America, particularly from Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) that are plagued by violence and political and economic instability. Refugees and asylum seekers are subject to entirely different definitions and laws under the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and are considered a protected class: Many people show up asking entry into the U.S. on humanitarian visas, particularly women and children, the two most vulnerable groups in any unstable situation. In 2014, the number of families applying for asylum or refugee status through the United States' southern border reached historic numbers, overwhelming shelters and detention centers while their applications were processed and creating uproars from one end of the country to the other. It's possible to apply for asylum in the United States two ways: through the affirmative asylum process (if the party applying is already present in the country) or through the defensive asylum process (when you request asylum as a defense against removal from the United States). Refugee status is very similar, but asylum can be requested before entering the U.S. When asylum-seekers appear at a border of the United States, they are transported to a detention center pending their interview with an immigration judge to see whether they are fleeing what's considered a credible threat. If they are denied, they're deported or can appeal, in which case they remain in immigration detention until their case can be heard again. Increasing numbers of people requesting asylum or refugee status means immigration judges are overwhelmed — and that detention centers equipped to hold families are full to overflowing. (The use of detention centers is controversial and strongly discouraged in international law.) When minors are entering the United States without adult family members, the general policy is to release them to family members within the country pending their immigration hearings, or to keep them in the least restrictive environment possible if they must be detained. When children and families are moved from site to site, they are often processed together and bused from one place to the next. It's also true that minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada have a different classification than Mexican and Canadian nationals: Sometimes, particularly when the bureaucratic controls over refugee status are overwhelmed, some people do slip through the cracks. However, they're never released en masse on unsuspecting suburban populations. It's possible, even probable, that the unnamed sources in this Judicial Watch saw families being bused from one detention center to the next or sent to transportation hubs in order to join family members in the United States pending further immigration hearings. This has been standard policy and practice for years in the U.S. However, it's also possible — and maybe probable — that given there are no names, dates, or facts given in the article, that none of this happened as described at all, and that the article is little more than empty conjecture.
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