- The Biden government is struggling to deal with the flow of migrants on the southern border.
- The government is now spending $ 86 million on hotel rooms to host migrants near the border.
- Biden has publicly urged migrants not to travel to the United States, but the increase is expected to grow.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
President Joe Biden’s administration secured a $ 86 million hotel contract to host migrants, Axios said on Saturday. The contract comes at a time when the president struggles to cope with the growing number of families and children trying to enter the United States.
The contract is with hotels near the border in Arizona and Texas to house about 1,200 migrants and will last for six months. It was done through Endeavors, a non-profit organization with programs that include housing and disaster relief services.
Hotels have been used by immigration officials before, including last year, when hundreds of migrants, including children, were held in large hotel chains before being deported under President Donald Trump’s border pandemic ban.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The latest decision to secure hotel rooms comes at a time when the U.S. is seeing the biggest increase in border migrants in decades, reaching 2 million potential migrants at the US-Mexico border this year, The Washington Post reported. The increase is putting great pressure on government resources and border cities.
Upon taking office, Biden sought to portray his immigration policies as more humane and empathetic, immediately revoking several immigration policies from the Trump era. Biden also offered a plan to provide a path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Republicans blamed Biden’s actions and rhetoric for the increase, which House minority leader Kevin McCarthy called “the Biden border crisis.” Meanwhile, Biden has publicly tried to urge people in Central America not to travel to the United States and stay where they are.
On Saturday, 5,000 unaccompanied children were detained by US Customs and Border Protection in prison-like facilities, CNN reported. More than 600 children have been detained for more than 10 days, in violation of the law.
Unaccompanied children must be removed from CBP custody within 72 hours and transferred to shelters administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Post reported that thousands of children are being held by the CBP for an average of 107 hours before being transferred.
According to the Associated Press, the number of meetings with families and children at the border is currently less than at different times during the last administration, including spring 2019. But experts warned that the current increase is still increasing and is likely to reach the peak in May, based on previous peak patterns, CNN reported.
In addition to trying to control the increase in the border, the Biden government is also working on broad immigration legislation that would solve current problems.