The Biden government is facing a dramatic increase in unaccompanied children at the border, a sign of how resources have been overwhelmed within a few months of the new government.
Axios reports that in the week ending March 1, the Border Patrol sent an average of 321 minors a day to Health and Human Services (HHS). It is a dramatic increase of 47 in early January and an average of 203 in early February, the channel reported.
REPUBLICANS DEMAND HEARING ABOUT THE OUTBREAK OF CHILDREN NOT ACCOMPANIED AT THE BORDER AS THE ADMINISTRATION DENIES THE CRISIS
Although it did not confirm the numbers, the HHS Refugee Resettlement Office (ORR) said in a statement to Fox that it “continues to work aggressively to fulfill its responsibility, by law, to provide shelter for UC referred to its care by the Department of Health. Homeland Security. ”
“HHS will continue to use all available options to safely care for the children referred to us. These options include short- and long-term solutions,” the statement said. “In the short term, we can ensure that children do not spend more time on border patrol facilities than necessary, using inflow facilities when additional space is immediately needed. At the same time, ORR is committed to moving aggressively toward the goal long-term approach to purchasing enough state-licensed beds from our network of care providers to reduce the need for inflow facilities. “
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it cannot share the specific number of migrants found, outside of the monthly totals, since they are sensitive to law enforcement. He also said that the numbers have been increasing since April 2020 due to factors such as violence, insecurity and hunger in Central American countries.
The government has faced an increase in the number of migrants as it has also worked quickly to end a series of Trump-era border protections and other measures that have been designed to end the “attraction factors” that attract migrants to the north.
The Biden administration terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), ended the construction of the border wall, and restarted the process of catching and releasing – whereby migrants are released into the interior of the United States. This practice was terminated by the Trump administration in 2019.
It maintained Title 42 protections – which allow migrants to be reversed quickly due to the coronavirus pandemic – but so far has not sought to apply them to unaccompanied children.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Monday that DHS is working to “replace the cruelty” of the Trump administration with “an orderly, humane and safe immigration process”.
“We are not saying not to come. We are saying not to come now, because we will be able to deliver a safe and orderly process to them as soon as possible,” he said.
REPUBLICANS WANT INFORMATION FROM MAYORKAS AFTER THE CHIEF OF DHS CLAIMED ‘WITHOUT CRISIS AT THE BORDER’
Republicans and Trump-era officials warned of an increase in the number of migrants at the border and blamed Biden directly.
“It took the new government just a few weeks to turn this unprecedented achievement into a self-inflicted humanitarian and national security disaster,” said former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, in turn, requested a briefing on the crisis.
“Proper oversight requires that members of the subcommittee have the opportunity to hear directly from officials in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and question them about the growing crisis and whether they have plans to halt the increase, “the letter to the President of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said.
Griff Jenkins of Fox News contributed to this report.