According to government figures reviewed by CBS News, the U.S. government on Saturday approved about 15,500 unaccompanied migrant minors, including 5,000 adolescents and children not designed for long-term custody at border patrol facilities.
As of Saturday morning, more than 5,000 inexperienced minors were being held at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tent holding facility at other stations along the South Texas and Mexico border. According to government records, unaccompanied children spend an average of 136 hours in CBP custody, compared to those in the U.S. Is more than the 72-hour limit set out in the law.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also plans to house about 10,500 unaccompanied children in state-licensed emergency housing facilities and shelters to care for citizens, department spokesman Mark Weber told CBS News on Saturday.
Last month, more than 9,400 undocumented minors entered the U.S. Entered Border Custody, which was a record high in February. That’s the number Expect an eclipse According to government figures, border officials have faced an average of more than 500 minors every day in the last 21 days, according to March figures.
H.H.S. The refugee agency in the U.S. is charged with most of the undesirable juvenile population unless it deals with them in the U.S. with family members or other sponsors. Will not be able to keep in, because of the number of children crossing the southern border and the limited bed space in its state-licensed shelters, the U.S. The refugee agency has been forced to open temporary accommodation facilities to get children out of border patrol custody.
Ally Hartman / AP
On Saturday, the HHSA notified Congress that it would launch a new flow facility in Pacos, Texas, according to a notice obtained by CBS News, which is likely to have about 500 unaccompanied children initially. The HHSA said the building facility for oil workers, previously established, could be expanded to 2,000 minor populations in the future.
The Pacos facility will be the fourth stream or emergency housing facility for underage children not to be opened by the Biden administration, who roam to find bed space for the number of children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border without parents or legal guardians. The Trump administration used three rush facilities for immigrant children over the age of four.
Last month, the U.S. Refugee Agency reopened the Trump-era rush facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas. With the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, refugee office fees have also turned the Emergency Las Convention Center and the camp for oil workers in the Midlands of Texas into emergency locations to get inexperienced teenagers stuck in border patrol facilities, detaining most of the migrant men.
Figures reviewed by CBS News on Saturday show that U.S. U.S. to reduce record-breaking high clog of children in border occupation. The government continues to struggle, though it opens new housing facilities and increases bed capacity in state-licensed shelters.
CBS News told CBP News that the surprising number of children in CBP custody is both heartbreaking and profound.
Last week, Desai and his colleagues interviewed a migrant minor at the Border Patrol Tent Holding Facility in Donia, Texas, at the National Center for Youth Law, Lesia Welch. According to Desai, the children reported taking turns sleeping on the floor Crowded conditions; Not able to call family members; And shower once in seven days.
Desai said he believes “the Biden administration is committed to humanely resolving the humanitarian situation we are now enduring,” but that “time will tell whether the government’s good intentions and hard work will translate into an urgently needed change.”
On Friday, a court-appointed doctor, Dr. Paul L. Wise, accused the U.S. Department of Surveillance of monitoring conditions performed by children in custody. District Court Judge Dolly Jean said he found a “deep crowd” at the Donna Holding facility and other CBP stations in South Texas. He toured last week.
Wise warned that holding capacity on the southern border could be resolved, saying congested conditions were not “sustainable”.
The CBP said in a statement to CBS News that it was working to relocate inexperienced minors to HHS shelters “as soon as we can.” Echoing statements made by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas, the agency said border patrol holding facilities are not meant to keep children in the long run. “
“The fact that we are in custody for a few hours is even more so for children who are caught at the border patrol border,” the agency said in a statement.
The U.S. Refugee Agency has reactivated more than 500 beds since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowed shelters to take social distance measures to rest and return to pre-epidemic capacity in early March, an agency spokesman told CBS News earlier this week.
The refugee agency is no longer considering keeping unused children at a military base in Virginia or a NASA installation in Northern California, according to HHS spokeswoman Weber, who is still evaluating other sites.
Citing a public health official in the late 19th century, the Trump administration jointly deported thousands of children across the southern border until a federal judge blocked the practice in November 2020 and allowed them to apply for asylum.
When the appellate court overturned the judge’s order in late January, the Biden administration refused to expel unsafe migrant children, calling the practice inhumane. The Biden administration continues to use the Trump-era public health mandate to expel migrants and some families with children.
“We have made a different decision than the previous administration,” Mayorkas told CBS The Morning on Thursday. “We do not push young children back into the environment of poverty and violence from which they are fleeing.”
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