Sponsors Must Pay to Rescue Migrant Kids from Border: Report

Sponsors seeking to rescue migrant children from border detainment facilities are forced to pay the transportation costs of both the child and an escort, according to a Sunday report from The New York Times. This payment, which can run up to $4,000, was also in place under the Obama administration but was waived in times of mass immigration. The families often have no choice but to pay the fee—one woman told the Times that she was notified of an $1,800 travel fee the day before the child's release. Potential sponsors must also pass stringent economic requirements to qualify in the first place: one woman was rejected because “authorities decided she could not afford the child’s medication,” the Times wrote, another was told that her house was too small. All members of a sponsor household must also submit their fingerprints to ICE, which can jeopardize the status of those who are undocumented. “The government is creating impossible barriers,” one expert told the Times, “and penalizing poverty.”