I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, March 23rd.

In the surge of child migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border are some who are trying to reach family in New York.

New York One reports that four local nonprofits are already vetting some of the children's

local contacts or arranging foster care, and that refugee resettlement groups are ramping up

capacity to accommodate an expected surge. With me now are the New York City Immigration Affairs Commissioner, Bita Mustafa,

and Maria Odom, Vice President for Legal Programs,

had kids in need of defense or kind.

She leads a team of immigration and social services professionals

serving unaccompanied migrant and refugee children in the U.S. and Mexico.

She was previously the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman for the U.S. Department

of Homeland Security under President Obama and chair of the department's Blue campaign, as it was

called, their effort to combat human trafficking. So, Commissioner Mustafa, welcome back.

Ms. Odom, welcome to WNYC.

Good morning, Brian.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

Commissioner, our children who are coming to the border

beginning to be resettled in New York

with family members they are trying to reach

or with other guardians?

Yeah, thank you, Brian.

So as you know well and many of your listeners,

...