Border with Mexico: increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the southern border setting alarms for the feds

Border with Mexico: increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the southern border setting alarms for the feds

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On Thursday, a senior official from the Department of Health and Human Services informed Capitol Hill staff about the capacity challenges facing the department, which is charged with caring for migrant children, according to a Congressional aide. Jallyn Sualog, interim director of the Refugee Resettlement Office, shared the concern about the increase in children and limited space, noting that bed capacity is fluctuating around 90%, according to an aide.

The problems facing the department are exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which required shelters to reduce their ability to handle Covid-19’s precautions.

As of Thursday, there were more than 1,200 unaccompanied children in custody of Customs and Border Protection on the southwestern border, according to an official in the Department of Homeland Security, who warned that the number is constantly fluctuating. More than 100 children have been in custody for more than 72 hours, according to the official and a source with knowledge of the situation. Most of the children are over 10, the source said.

Customs and Border Protection continue to keep more than 300 unaccompanied children in custody on the US-Mexico border on average daily, according to the Homeland Security official. On Wednesday, border authorities arrested about 360 unaccompanied children, according to a customs and border protection official, who added that most of these arrests occurred in the Rio Grande Valley.

Unaccompanied migrant children are a particularly vulnerable population and a population that the United States has struggled to cope with for years. The Border Patrol facilities, designed for the rapid treatment of adults, are not equipped to care for children. Instead, children are turned over to HHS, which runs a network of shelters where they stay until they are relocated with sponsors, such as parents or relatives, in the United States.

But the process was further complicated by the pandemic.

“There has been a significant growth in the number of children in custody in the last month, but the current number in custody is not high compared to the number of times during the Trump administration. The difference now is that many of the beds that ORR had arranged to be available are not available because of Covid, “said Mark Greenberg, a senior member of the Migration Policy Institute and a former HHS employee.

There were approximately 6,800 children in the agency’s care on February 18. In April 2019, when border prisons were increasing, about 8,700 unaccompanied children were turned over to the ORR.

The increase in children crossing the US-Mexico border, coupled with restrictions on the capacity of shelters, has resulted in children who have remained in custody of the Border Patrol for more than 72 hours, according to two American officials.

“[The number is] growing. If they are not going to take the children and the children keep coming, what should we do? “An Internal Security official told CNN, referring to HHS.

Another official said that HHS is “struggling” to find space to house children.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency reporting to HHS, recently opened an overflow facility in Texas to accommodate newcomers.

The agency said it also authorized shelters to pay transportation fees for children, including airline tickets, to facilitate their release to approved sponsors, a change that is likely to be less costly than keeping children in care.

“The system itself for all unaccompanied children is being overwhelmed in an effort to protect children and communities from the spread of Covid and Covid,” the source with knowledge of the process told CNN. “The burden is being placed on programming how to mitigate concerns, how to adapt.”

In January, more than 5,800 unaccompanied children were taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection at the US-Mexico border, according to the agency’s most recent monthly data. This is the highest level since the summer of 2019, after the spring increase of that year of migrants who arrived at the southwest border.

The number of unaccompanied migrant children seized at the border has continued to rise this month, officials said. Last year, when the pandemic hit the country, the Trump administration invoked a public health law allowing border officials to refuse migrants detained at the border, including children, resulting in a low number of unaccompanied children being admitted to the U.S.

A federal judge ended up preventing the government from submitting unaccompanied children to politics, but that decision was later reversed by a federal appeals court. The Biden government, however, said it would not expel children.

“Our best option, in our opinion, is to have these children processed at HHS facilities, 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 during Thursday’s press conference.

“There are few good options here and we chose the one that we think is the best,” she added.

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