Child immigration crisis reaches Chicago-area shelters

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border is now playing out in Chicago as hundreds of undocumented children are now in this area.

Some 57,000 undocumented minors have entered the southern US, with reports that as many as 482 youngsters are in the custody of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago-area shelters.

"All these children are facing deportation back to countries where they fear harm; we need a fair and orderly adjudication system," said Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers slugged it out about what to do after President Obama Thursday asked for $3.7 billion in emergency aid to take care of children as young as 8-years-old who are coming to the US, primarily in search of their parents.

"This administration has dealt with this as a humanitarian crisis, they have put the children first they have followed the law; the fact is they need more resources to follow the law," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

"Smugglers have told the parents that if they bring the kids now they will be able to acquire documents even though that is not true," said Pablo Ordonez, acting head of the Consulate of Honduras in Chicago.

The Honduran Consulate said cases of U.S. residents looking for their children that may be trying to come here have tripled in the last month in the Chicago area.

"We are getting a lot of requests from different shelters where they want to verify the identity of certain minors, and we are also getting some parents that their kids have been caught at the border and they want to be reunified with them, and they are seeking for their passports," Ordonez said.

Ordonez said his country along with Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico are working to keep children from embarking on a journey to America that's fraught with danger.

"We should all be looking at this from a very different perspective and that perspective should be, how do we make sure that child is safe," McCarthy said.