20 immigrant children land in NJ in a month

SOUTH JERSEY, NJ — More than two dozen immigrant children are being housed in an undisclosed location in South Jersey, including three who were separated from their parents at the border within the last 30 days,

According to Jen Hemill, spokesman for Child Family Services (CFS), a social services agency based in Camden, 20 children came to CFS within the last 30 days following the implementation of President Trump’s “zero tolerance policy.” Seventeen of them were unaccompanied minors, she said.

Of the 27 children being housed by the agency, 19 of them are living in one facility and the others are in a separate location, which includes parents and guardians.

She said that over the past year the agency has housed a total of 90 children and 95 percent of those children crossed the border as unaccompanied minors.

On June 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending his administration’s controversial policy of separating immigrant children from their parents if they are caught illegally crossing the border.

But the new order does not end Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy on immigrants caught entering the US illegally, and raises a new set of questions about how the government will handle children and families in detention.