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Some 8,000 migrant children who arrived alone have been expelled from the United States along the border with Mexico. under a pandemic-related measure that ended asylum, authorities said Friday.
The administration of President Donald Trump has expelled more than 159,000 people since the emergency order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took effect in March, a figure that also includes more than 7,600 adults and children who crossed. the border in their families.
The figures on children were first reported in a statement by Raúl Ortiz, deputy head of the Border Patrol, as part of the administration’s appeal of an order to stop accommodating children in hotels.
The administration “immediately” expelled most of the children and families to Mexico, but more than 2,200 unaccompanied minors and 600 people who arrived as families were held until flights could be arranged to return home, Ortiz said.
The administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn a ruling last week that found the use of hotels circumvented “fundamental humanitarian protections.”
US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ruled that the use of hotels for long-term detention violated a two-decade-old agreement governing the treatment of children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Tuesday.
Lawyers for the Justice Department argued that the agreement did not apply during the public health emergency and that the hotels were appropriate.
“While in these hotels, the government provides minors with specialist supervision, recreation, amenities, and protection measures against Covid-19,” the lawyers wrote.
Before the pandemic, children who were alone were sent to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services and often released to family members while seeking asylum.
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