She's Not Elian

The world continues to focus on six-year-old Elian Gonzalez as his case drags on in the courts.

But CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports not all potential immigrants get as much attention or treated as well as the little Cuban boy.

For instance, when Georgia Norman left behind the poverty of Jamaica last December, she left for a better life in the United States.

But the place she has called home for the last six months is an Immigration and Naturalization Service Detention center in Chicago. Her crime— she entered the U.S. without proper papers.

Every day, illegal immigrants are detained because they don’t have proper documentation, and that includes children. More than 5,000 were caught last year, locked up and totally isolated from their families. Many of them are teenagers. Many are younger, much younger.

Georgia Norman was three years old when she was put away six months ago.

Sheila Ramos is Georgia’s guardian. "Some animals are treated better than this child here, she’s a human being, she’s not a rag."

Ramos had prepared a room for Georgia in her Wisconsin home after making arrangements with the baby’s Jamaican mother to bring the little girl to Milwaukee. But much to Ramos’ surprise, agents stopped Georgia when she entered this country because she was carrying a fraudulent visa, and took her away.

"Don’t lock that baby up like that, don’t do that. She didn’t do nothing wrong, so why are they punishing her?" asked Ramos.

Georgia Norman wasn’t the only baby incarcerated in Chicago. Another little girl the same age shared a room with her. It’s a trend that has child welfare experts really worried. Suddenly, the INS has to play nursemaid to thousands of undocumented children.

And while observers say the INS is good at prosecuting and deporting adults, it’s not good at looking after children.

"The INS first said to me that we don’t keep unaccompanied minors in a secure facility, in a jail, in a detention center unless we suspect them of criminal activity," said Rep. Luis Guiterriez, D-Ill.

"We have subsequently found out that this is just not true."

The INS declined a request by CBS News for an interview but claims the safety and well-being of Georgia is their focus.

"It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right and everybody knows it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right and what we’d like to do is make sure we don’t have any more Georgia’s," said Guiterriez.

In an expedited effort, the INS just won approval to deport Georgia. She could be sent back to Jamaica as soon as Friday. But other would-be immigrants remain under lock and key at INS detention centers.