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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Saturday that he had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support a “government-wide effort” to house migrant children – while the numbers continue to increase.
The agency will support the effort to “safely receive, shelter and transfer unaccompanied children” who attempt to enter the United States. He noted that there was a “record number of individuals, including unaccompanied children, at the southwest border”.
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“I am grateful for the exceptional talent and responsiveness of the FEMA team,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud of the Border Patrol officers, who work around the clock under difficult circumstances to temporarily care for the children in our care. Yet, as I have said many times, a border patrol is not a kid’s place. “
“We are working in partnership with HHS to meet the needs of unaccompanied children, which is made even more difficult given the protocols and restrictions necessary to protect public health and the health of the children themselves,” he said. he declares. “Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS as quickly as possible, in accordance with legal requirements and in the best interests of the children.”
DHS said FEMA “is now integrated and co-located with HHS to review all available options to rapidly expand physical capacity for appropriate accommodation.”
Republican John Katko, a senior Republican on the House Homeland Security committee, said it was a sign of a border crisis – something the administration has so far refused to call.
“By doing this, they are admitting that there is a crisis even if they don’t say it,” he told “Fox Report”.
He accused the agency of “peeling” resources that could be used to fight the coronavirus pandemic, such as the distribution of vaccines, to focus on rising borders.
“It’s outrageous,” he said.
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This is the administration’s latest initiative to deal with a dramatic increase in migrants – including unaccompanied children – in recent weeks. Although he noted that many of these migrants can be returned through Title 42 public health protection measures, migrant children cannot.
CBP met 100,441 people in February, a 28% increase from January, the agency said. Of this number, 19,246 belonged to family units; 9,457 were unaccompanied children (UAC) and 71,598 were single adults.
The number of migrant children held along the border has tripled in the past two weeks to more than 3,250. Meanwhile, it has opened more facilities, including considering using a military base in Virginia and a NASA facility – and removing capacity limits due to COVID-19 to cope with the rising number of migrant children.
Republicans and immigration hawks have blamed Biden’s policies for encouraging the outbreak – particularly his rollback of Trump-era border protections like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs) and the cooperation in matters of asylum with the countries of the Northern Triangle, as well as its call for citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.
“The Biden administration is not tackling a crisis, it is exacerbating it,” Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) government relations director RJ Hauman said in a statement. “This is yet another message that will be heard loud and clear by smugglers and everyone in Central America – keep coming to our southern border, things will be fine once you get here.”
Mayorkas appealed for DHS staff to volunteer to help CBP, calling the numbers “overwhelming.” Meanwhile, acting CBP commissioner Troy Miller said this week that “we continue to tackle the numbers of people in our custody, especially in the event of a pandemic.”
But the administration stubbornly refused to call it a crisis, with Mayorkas a week earlier calling it only a “challenge”.
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He maintained that position this week, with several officials refusing to utter the word “crisis”.
“You know, I think… I’m not trying to be cute here, but I think the point is we have to do what we do regardless of what anyone calls the situation,” Roberta Jacobson, coordinator for the southern border, said Wednesday at a press briefing.
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“And the point is, we’re all focused on making the situation better, on moving to a more humane, more efficient system. And whatever you call that wouldn’t change what we’re doing because we have the urgency. , from the president to the grassroots to fix our system and make sure we are better able to manage the hopes and dreams of these migrants in their countries of origin, ”she said.
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