At the border, a sharp rise in unaccompanied girls fleeing Honduras

*Parsing the numbers related to the undocumented minor “crisis” at the border, a new story emerges. VL

By Jens Manuel Krogstad, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, and Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew research Center

The number of unaccompanied girls from three Central American countries caught at the Southwest border has increased more rapidly this year than the number of boys, particularly among teens, according to a new analysis of government data obtained by the Pew Research Center.

The data, provided under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows a detailed demographic portrait of the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border over the past 20 months. In addition to anoverall increasing rate of young unaccompanied children apprehended at the border, the new analysis shows that girls, particularly from Honduras, are increasingly taking the dangerous journey from Central America to the U.S. without a parent or guardian.

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[Photo by CBP Photography/Flickr]