Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

The number of young people fleeing high levels of violence, crime, natural disasters, food insecurity, and poverty and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border reached a 20-year high in fiscal year 2021. Montgomery County, Maryland has continued to be a primary destination for migrant and asylum-seeking children, youth, and families. Between 2014 and 2021, Montgomery was the eleventh highest receiving county in the nation for unaccompanied migrant children seeking to reunify with family members or other sponsors. More than 1,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in our county between January and August 2021, and we’ve welcomed at least 500 minors since the beginning of fiscal year 2022. In addition, an unknown number of children continue to arrive with parents or other caregivers. While there is no mechanism to track the overall number of migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in each state or county, we can feel the impact on our public schools and community-based services.

We take seriously our duty to welcome and support our new residents and recognize that all children, regardless of country of origin or immigration status, have the right to access protection, seek asylum, remain and reunite with family members, and attend public schools; these are rights which are secured under international and national law.

We are aware that many of our newcomer children and youth are not afforded the opportunity to remain in the county. Once unaccompanied children are released from federal custody and reunited with family members or other sponsors, they are automatically placed in deportation proceedings. Without access to legal services or representation—which many cannot afford—most of these children are eventually deported. Caught amid this due process crisis, these children’s lives are riddled with uncertainty and long-term implications on their mental health, sense of safety, and well-being.

Unfortunately, the federal and Maryland state responses to newly arriving migrant and asylum-seeking children do not include support for the communities receiving them. Few federal or state dollars are appropriated to help facilitate a local response to newcomer children. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reports that at least 84% of program costs for unaccompanied migrant children are spent on what is typically the first 30 to 60 days after children’s arrival—when they are in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement—and less than 16% on the following months or years, when they are adjusting to life in U.S. communities.

Notwithstanding the limited federal and state support, Montgomery County has sought to attend to the needs of our newcomers through expanded health, mental health, school and after-school programming, legal assistance, and other services. Without strategic guidance from federal agencies or a coordination mechanism in place to share learning and best practices with other high-receiving counties, we have been innovating our own path forward.

In April 2021, we established an interagency steering committee to coordinate efforts between county government, Montgomery County Public Schools, and our community partners who have been leading this work for decades. Our team studied UNICEF’s and MPI’s reports on improving reception, care, and services for migrant and asylum-seeking children in the United States and participated in joint-learning events co-hosted by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Oakland International High School Learning Lab on welcoming unaccompanied minors to our schools and communities. The value of cross-district learning cannot be underestimated. The federal government could do more to facilitate such opportunities so counties like ours do not need to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel.

We developed a six-part strategy—the Bienvenidos Initiative—focusing on outreach and communications; navigation and case management; education and school-based services; legal orientation and service provision; positive youth development and recreation; and anti-discrimination, public safety, and trafficking prevention. In July, the Montgomery County Council's joint Health and Human Services and Education and Culture Committee approved more than $5 million in supplemental funding to support our newly arriving migrant and asylum-seeking children, youth, and families through coordinated services.

The funding has allowed us to bolster a culturally competent navigation network to connect newcomer children and families to education and social services. We have developed a communications strategy to reach those who may not be aware of the services available to them. This includes a telephone hotline, a Spanish-language WhatsApp group, as well as radio, television, and social media outreach in Spanish and the most prominent Mayan languages spoken within our community, including Ixil, M’am, and Quiché. Abuelina, an animated character commissioned by our Latino Health Initiative, Por Nuestra Salud y Bienestar, has also helped us connect with our newly arriving residents.