More than 700 children who crossed the border from Mexico to the United States without their parents were in custody of the Border Patrol on Sunday, according to an internal Customs and Border Protection document obtained by Axios.
Why does it matter: The current backup is yet another sign of a crisis in the making for President Biden – and an increasingly worse dilemma for these vulnerable children. Biden is finding it easier to talk about preventing child storage at the southern border than it is to solve the problem.
- To make matters worse, border crossings usually peak in the spring, and it is still February.
Behind the scenes: Of the more than 700 children waiting to be transferred to shelters supervised by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, more than 200 have been held at these border patrol stations for more than 48 hours.
- Nine were detained for longer than the agreed 72-hour limit, according to the internal document, which recorded the current data as 8:15 am on February 21.
During the White House media briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that some children were detained for four or five days – or more.
- She blamed some of the delays for the bad weather that closed Texas last week, saying that some long-term shelters “lacked energy and were not in a place where they had the ability to receive these children and do it safely”.
- She also rejected – harshly – an equivalence between the treatment that current and past administrations have of children, who generally come from Central American countries, on the border of the United States with Mexico.
- As president, Donald Trump was criticized for separating the children from their parents. This policy is no longer in effect, although an increasing number of children arriving now are not accompanied, which means that they are detained alone anyway.
What they are saying: “We have a few options: we can send them back home. … We can quickly transfer them from CPB to these HHS-managed facilities. … We can place them with families and sponsors without any verification,” said Psaki. “We chose the middle option.”
During the increase in 2019, Government watchdogs found severe overcrowding and issues related to sanitation, health and safety at the US Customs and Border Patrol entrance facilities, which are special concerns for children.
- CBP is only intended to have short-term custody of migrants before adults and families are transferred to the US immigration and customs enforcement agency and unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS.
- However, in January, at least 179 migrant minors spent more than three days in CBP custody, as well as at least 48 children in December, Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News reported this week.
What to watch: Coronavirus protocols have also significantly reduced the number of children that can be kept in HHS long-term shelters.
- The Biden administration has already been forced to open a temporary influx shelter in Texas for migrant children, who also have the ability to add tent-like structures.
More than 400 migrant children they were referred to HHS shelters only on Tuesday, according to a government official.
- This is an eye-catching number, especially compared to the 30-day reference average at the peak of the 2019 crisis – which was 294.
Conclusion: The Biden government suspended the use of an emergency health order that had allowed the Trump administration to quickly expel migrant children who crossed the border.
- Some experts now say that the reversal of Biden’s policy is part of the reason for the recent increase in unaccompanied children arriving at the border.