Bunk beds were taken to one of the processing facilities to help accommodate the flow of children. “Some of them are up to three bunks high,” an agent told CNN, adding that children also sleep on plastic beds and mats on the floor and on the benches.
Customs and Border Protection is on track to find more individuals at the border than in the past 20 years, said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, adding that the agency is finding children from six to seven years old.
More than 300 unaccompanied migrant children have been in the custody of the Border Patrol for more than 10 days, CNN learned. More than 4,200 minors are currently in custody, with an average time of 120 hours.
Asked about the numbers in custody, an Internal Security official told CNN: “It’s terrible, it’s going up, it’s bad … we’re beaten up, totally above capacity.”
“I can clearly say: don’t come,” Biden told ABC in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
“We are in the process of installing. Do not leave your city, town or community,” he added.
The experiences of migrant children arriving in the United States underscore the great challenge facing the Biden government. This is accommodating the growing number of children crossing the border from the United States to Mexico alone, in the midst of a pandemic that is depleting resources, especially shelters.
There are a multitude of reasons why children are traveling to the border of the United States with Mexico. Many are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
“There is a misunderstanding that they are taking advantage of or coming here in search of economic opportunities. But these are children who flee for basic needs to be met, for safety, for shelter, for food,” said a source who supervises managers of cases that work with children. “Imagine what it is like to be a refugee child who comes to the United States during the pandemic.”
Marisa Limón Garza, deputy director of the Hope Border Institute, which works directly with migrants, said that some families on the border have chosen to send their children alone.
“It comes with a great sacrifice. I don’t think any of these parents will be lost. This is a difficult choice,” said Limón Garza.
Why children are held in prisons for longer than the law allows
With an increasing number of children crossing the US-Mexico border alone, the Border Patrol facilities are where children must stay until authorities can transfer them to shelters suitable for them. These facilities are designed to care for adults, not children, and are similar to prison-like facilities with concrete walls and benches.
Children at stations in the Tucson, Arizona area, for example, have to be transported from Border Patrol stations to a central coordination center for bathing, the Border Patrol agent told CNN.
“There are children who are there day and day,” said the agent, noting that the agency complies with the law to care for children, except that it cannot comply with the legal requirement of 72 hours. “You just can’t now.”
Federal law requires unaccompanied children to be delivered within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees a network of shelters designed to house minors.
Senior Customs and Border Protection officer Troy Miller told reporters that minors receive three meals a day, have access to snacks and drinks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that showers are provided at least every 48 hours. They also have access to a play area, said Miller.
Mayorkas, who is due to testify on Wednesday before the House’s Internal Security Committee, acknowledged the extent of the problem.
“The Border Patrol facilities were filled to capacity with children and the 72-hour deadline for the transfer of children from the Border Patrol to [HHS] is not always enforced, “said the secretary of homeland security in a statement on Tuesday.
“HHS does not have the capacity to receive the number of unaccompanied children that we have encountered,” said Mayorkas.
On Monday, CBP found about 570 unaccompanied children, CNN learns. Seventy-six were 12 years old or younger.
“March will be bigger than February”, in terms of apprehensions based on current data, “and quite ugly,” said the Homeland Security official.
Field actions
Over the weekend, Mayorkas called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help transfer children from Border Patrol custody to shelters most suitable for them.
“It is difficult and busy, but manageable,” said an Internal Security official about how the department is dealing with developments in the situation there.
DHS has started two groups to coordinate and respond to the situation on the US-Mexico border, one led by the secretary and the other led by the deputy secretary, the official said. Both groups have been meeting several times a week, the official told CNN, in addition to frequent calls and updates.
“When he’s asking questions and asking for details, it’s not just a report on the numbers – what are the things we already have in our toolbox that we can deploy?” The official added, saying he encouraged the team to think outside the box. “Every small space in White House operations, and from different agencies, is devoting time and resources to doing this and that is what will take time.”
HHS also called on volunteers within the department to travel to border posts to help prosecute children and expedite their release to a sponsor, such as a parent or relative, in the United States, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
There are more than 9,300 in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency reporting to HHS, according to Kenneth Wolfe, a department spokesman.
“The first time these children feel safe, potentially in years, is when they enter a [Office of Refugee Resettlement] shelter, “said Nathan Bult, senior vice president for public and government affairs at Bethany Christian Services, which works directly with unaccompanied children.
“That is why it is so important to provide high quality care for these children,” said Bult.
CNN’s Rosa Flores contributed to this report.