WASHINGTON – The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arrested for illegally crossing the southern border of the United States is increasing by more than 50% in February compared to the previous month, people familiar with the matter said, raising the prospect of a humanitarian crisis there.
Some 2,200 children illegally crossed the border weekly in February, and the pace is increasing as the month progresses, some people said. The government projects that about 9,000 children will be taken into custody by the end of February.
US Customs and Border Protection reported having 5,707 unaccompanied children in custody in January, an 18% increase over the previous month. The growing number of children in custody is beginning to undermine the government’s ability to house and care for them properly.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. CBP said it would not share the specific number of unaccompanied children detained outside the monthly totals, saying that the number was a sensitive law enforcement issue, and added that it continued to prioritize the processing of children before other migrants.
The Biden administration has sought to prevent a repeat of humanitarian crises at the borders in 2014 and 2019, when waves of unaccompanied children and migrant families overwhelmed federal facilities.
Until February, the pace of entry of unaccompanied children at the border was lower than in the previous two waves. The government’s task of caring for children had already been complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The space in the government network of childcare shelters, operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services, has been reduced by 40% to allow for social distance.
This means that the government reached capacity much faster than before the pandemic. The government opened an emergency shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, this week to house more children.
When children cannot be sent quickly to shelters, they remain in the custody of the Border Patrol. The cells at the Border Patrol facilities are not designed to house children and their agents are not trained to care for children.
As of Friday, more than 900 children were waiting at Border Patrol posts to be transferred to a shelter, according to a person familiar with the number, with 100 of them waiting longer than the 72-hour time limit allowed by law.
President Biden proposed a comprehensive immigration reform plan. But, as WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains, he faces an escalation that may be even more difficult than previous administrations. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
Illegal border crossings by unaccompanied children, families and single adults have increased since the summer due to a combination of factors. The pandemic has worsened the economic situation in Mexico and Central America, where most migrants come from.
The Biden administration has sought to strike a balance in its policy on the southern border, signaling to immigration advocates that it is working to reverse former President Donald Trump’s policies that restrict access to the asylum system, while sending a message to potential migrants – in English and Spanish – now is not the time to make the journey north.
White House officials have been working with Latin American governments to spread their message and, in some cases, to recruit foreign agents to repel migrants across the southern borders of the United States
The Biden government has put in place an emergency public health order issued by former President Trump during the pandemic, which allows border agents to quickly repel most of the migrants they encounter, avoiding the process of formal arrest. In such cases, migrants are not allowed to apply for asylum, a legal protection that anyone can seek if they are fleeing political, religious or other persecution in their home countries.
Although crossing the border without permission is illegal, US law allows foreigners to apply for asylum, regardless of how they entered the country. Most asylum seekers in the United States end up losing their cases, according to data from the Department of Justice.
In November, a court ordered the Trump administration to stop implementing the public health emergency policy for children. An appeals court overturned the decision after President Biden took office, but his government chose not to resume sending children to their home countries.
“Our best option, in our opinion, is to have these children processed in the HHS facility, where there are Covid protocols, where they are safe, where they can access medical and educational care,” said the press secretary of the House White Jen Psaki on Thursday.
Republicans and former Trump administration officials criticized the Biden government for this decision, saying it contributed to the recent increase.
“This is a self-inflicted crisis,” said Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior adviser and architect of his immigration policy.
Write to Michelle Hackman at [email protected]
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