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Crosscurrents

What happens to children separated from their parents seeking asylum?

Courtesty of Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities youth play soccer against local high school students in the 'One World Cup'

We’ve heard about kids sent to camps and detention facilities and we’ve seen the images of children in cages, wrapped up in foil blankets. One question we’ve been asking is—what happens to them after detention?

Well, often, after their cases are processed, many end up in the American foster care system. Catholic Charities in Santa Clara has been working with the Office of Refugee Resettlement and trains people to be foster families to these refugee children. And to them, this is not new. They’ve been resettling unaccompanied refugee children for years. 
 

"There are tons of kids, thousands of kids, that are waiting for long-term permanent homes. They're not new. They've been there for a long time, in shelters or detention centers, and they can't reunify, and their asylum cases are approved, and so they need families."

Angela Albright is director of the Refugee Foster Care Division at Catholic Charities. Hana Baba talked to her to ask her how the program works, and how the current border crisis is affecting it.

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Crosscurrents Immigration