Thousands of Central American migrants, many of them unaccompanied children, have been crossing the southern border in recent days, oppressing government officials.
Many of those who tried to cross the border were told by Mexican officials that they could enter the United States. In a camp on the Mexican side of the border, which had been set up two years ago, some asylum seekers were told that they could reopen their cases and eventually enter the United States to await the asylum process, according to a Report CBS.
Mexican authorities have long tried to close the makeshift camps set up by migrants trying to enter the United States.
The new influx is due in large part to the instability and rising rates of COVID-19 infection in Central American countries, as well as the perception of a change in immigration rules under the Biden government, according to Customs and Protection of USA borders.
Last week, Border Patrol agents reported that 350 children entered the United States a day without their parents – more than double the number last fall, according to reports.
The Refugee Resettlement Office, a federal agency that works to house unaccompanied minors, said they process an average of 337 children a day. In January, the agency’s shelters saw more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors arrive in the United States, an increase of 19 percent since December, according to the CBS report. This number is the highest the agency has ever registered in February. In February 2019, the agency registered almost 5,900 minors, according to CBS.
Unaccompanied children must be delivered within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services. There are currently 7,700 unaccompanied minors in the care of HHS, which opened a children’s shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for children between 13 and 17 years old earlier this year. The agency is also conducting a “local search” at a military barracks in Fort Lee, Virginia, to find other temporary housing, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
In the past, overflow facilities operated with limited capacity due to the coronavirus, but on Friday the Biden administration notified the HHS that they may reopen facilities to pre-pandemic levels, an indication that the increase is likely to increase, according to a CNN report last week.