Young children are the fastest-growing population of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a new report.
The Pew Research Center on Tuesday reported that previously unreleased government data show record numbers of children ages 12 and under entering on the southern border, with a 117 percent increase in young kids compared with the year before.
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Unaccompanied minors, ages 13 to 17, increased only by 12 percent. Less than 1 percent of unaccompanied minors are younger than 1 year old, and 2 percent are 5 years old or younger.
Honduras has sent the largest number of unaccompanied minors across the border. So far in 2014, 13,244 minors have been apprehended from Honduras, with 27 percent of those being 12 years of age or younger.
These data, obtained by Pew with a Freedom of Information Act request, cover the period between Oct. 1, 2012, to May 31, 2014. From October 2013 to May 2014, 46,932 children were apprehended at the border and taken into U.S. custody. In the previous fiscal year, 38,759 children were taken into custody.