Giving Compass' Take:

• There is a 516 percent increase of detained migrant children in the U.S. since May of 2017. Due to new detainment processes, it now takes months to release children from detention facilities. 

• How can philanthropists and organizations help address this issue? What more can be done to influence better policy surrounding immigration and detainment laws?

• Read about how donors can help in the family separation crisis. 

The Trump administration was forced to rescind its policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the US-Mexico border earlier this year, but the detention of unaccompanied minors continues at a staggering rate, according to the New York Times.

In May 2017, there were 2,400 unaccompanied minors being held in detention facilities and right now, there are a reported 12,800 children in detention — a rise of 516%.

The increase has little to do with how many migrant children are crossing the US-Mexico border, according to the Times.

Instead, it’s being driven by changes to the country’s immigration control policies. In the past, unaccompanied minors were generally detained for a brief period and then released to a foster family that was usually related in some way to the child. In doing so, the government wasn’t losing record of the child; it was simply ensuring that the child wasn’t suffering unduly.

Now, the Trump administration has mandated that any foster family has to submit their fingerprints to the federal government before a child can be released, and the time to process foster family requests has become backlogged by months.

As a result, detention facilities are currently at 90% capacity, compared to 30% at the same time last year, and could be fully overwhelmed in the months ahead if an influx of migration occurs, according to experts who spoke with the Times.

And as child welfare experts argue, long-term detention can cause deep-seated trauma, especially for unaccompanied minors who are away from their families in a foreign country. This is even more likely in migrant detention facilities that have histories of enabling abusive behavior toward children.

Read the full article about detained migrant children by Joe McCarthy at Global Citizen