Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Unaccompanied Alien Children Assistance Control Act”.
Unaccompanied Alien Children Assistance Control Act
A BILL
To reduce the amount of foreign assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras based on the number of unaccompanied alien children who are nationals or citizens of such countries and who in the preceding fiscal year are placed in Federal custody by reason of their immigration status.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Gang violence, poverty, and corruption are the main drivers of illegal immigration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to the United States.
According to an independent task force report by the Atlantic Council’s Latin America Center—
systemic corruption stagnates economic growth;
eight in ten poll respondents see corruption as widespread;
citizens in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras do not trust the government institutions responsible for curtailing corruption; and
investigations have revealed massive networks dedicated to co-opting public funds for the personal enrichment of government officials.
There exists the potential for foreign assistance from the United States to be misused by central government officials in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in order to reduce the success of anti-corruption efforts.
Systemic corruption in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras undermines efforts to address the driving causes of illegal immigration into the United States from such countries.
The United States provided more than $3,046,484,297 of foreign assistance for Central American countries during fiscal years 2018 through 2021.
For the past 5 fiscal years, the Department of Homeland Security has referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) 40,810 unaccompanied children in fiscal year 2017, 69,488 in fiscal year 2019, 15,381 in fiscal year 2020, 122,731 in fiscal year 2021, and 128,904 in fiscal year 2022.
In fiscal year 2022, approximately 72 percent of all children referred were over 14 years of age, and 64 percent were boys. In fiscal year 2022, countries of origin of youth in this program were approximately as follows: Guatemala (47 percent); Honduras (29 percent); El Salvador (13 percent); and other (11 percent).
On average, providing care for unaccompanied alien children in ORR custody costs $500 per child, per day.
In fiscal year 2022 the average length of stay in ORR custody for an unaccompanied alien child was 30 days.
On average, the total cost of care for an unaccompanied alien child in ORR custody in fiscal year 2022 was $15,000 per child and $1,933,560,000 for all children.
According to the Department of State, the United States is the largest single donor of humanitarian aid in Central America and Mexico and to asylum seekers, refugees, and vulnerable migrants in the region.
Sec. 3 Reduction of amount of foreign assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
In general— The President shall reduce from amounts made available under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 or any other Act and allocated for a covered country for a fiscal year an amount equal to—
the number of unaccompanied alien children who—
are nationals or citizens of the covered country; and
in the preceding fiscal year are placed in Federal custody by reason of their immigration status; multiplied by
$15,000.
Definitions— In this section—
the term covered country means El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras; and
the term unaccompanied alien child has the meaning given the term in section 462(g)(2) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)(2)).
Effective date— This Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply with respect to amounts made available under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 or any other Act for fiscal year 2024 and each subsequent fiscal year.