Immigration: Record numbers of children in border patrol custody, shelter beds are scarce, documents show

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More than 3,200 unaccompanied migrant children were in the custody of customs and border protection, according to documents dated Monday. Of that number, around 2,600 were waiting to be placed in shelters suitable for minors, but there were just over 500 beds available to accommodate them.

The latest data follows a trip to the US-Mexico border by senior administration officials to assess the situation on the ground amid a growing number of arrests and indicate a rapidly rising trend in unaccompanied children to enter the United States. Less than a week ago, there were approximately 1,700 children in border patrol custody.

As of Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden had yet to be briefed by his key aides about the weekend, which included a visit to a facility for unaccompanied migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas – the first facility for migrant children to be opened from Biden. to take place.

Officials were in investigation mode, a familiar person said, and many were taking notes during their conversations. Biden is expected to be briefed in the next few days as aides spent part of the trip comparing notes and planning how to present the information to the president.

Among those who attended was Susan Rice, former national security adviser to President Barack Obama who now heads Biden’s Home Policy Council. A source close to the visit told CNN that Rice was engaged during the visit and, at times, pressed officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which run shelters for unaccompanied migrants, on how they are doing. prepared to respond to the wave and deal with migrants. children more effectively.

HHS told CNN in a statement on Monday that the Office of Refugee Resettlement “is actively working with our interagency partners to ensure that unaccompanied migrant children are safe and unified with family members or other sponsors. appropriate as quickly and safely as possible “.

“The number of unaccompanied children (UC) in our care is constantly changing,” the department said.

The growing number of unaccompanied children has sounded the alarm among officials scrambling to find shelter to care for children amid an ongoing pandemic that has led some places to keep some beds unoccupied to comply to health guidelines.

Monday’s data reveals the lingering bottleneck in the system, with more children in custody than the U.S. government is prepared to address. He also highlights the obstacles the Biden administration faces as it attempts to take a more humanitarian approach to immigration while juggling realities on the border.

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The numbers are overwhelming. For comparison, at the height of the 2019 border crisis – when there were overcrowded facilities and children sleeping on the floor – there were around 2,600 unaccompanied children in border patrol custody, one said. former head of CBP at CNN.

A myriad of reasons may explain the sudden increase in the number of children on the US-Mexico border, including the dramatic toll of the pandemic in Latin America, where economies once supposed to grow have been decimated, the results of two devastating hurricanes. that hit the region, and a relaxed app perception by the Biden administration.

First Lady Julissa Reynoso’s chief of staff briefly discussed her trip to the US-Mexico border as part of a delegation of senior administration officials that also included Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“We spoke to many people involved, including children. We are trying to deal with this in an orderly fashion, but with the human cost in mind here, and given that we are talking about children. something that we manage, ”Reynoso told reporters on Monday.

The group flew from Washington in a military plane and made their first stop at the CBP tent facility in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, which deals with undocumented migrants. From there, the group flew north along the border to Laredo, where they landed and proceeded to the Carrizo Springs children’s shelter. The trip lasted most of Saturday.

At both sites, officials spoke to some of the people responsible for managing them, some of the grassroots CBP and HHS officials who work there, and some of the migrants who are being held at the facilities, including some of the children. . Several of the travel officials speak Spanish and were able to communicate directly with the detained migrants.

The Biden administration notified facilities for migrant children on Friday that they could reopen at pre-Covid-19 levels, acknowledging “extraordinary circumstances,” according to a note obtained by CNN.
After being placed in the custody of the border patrol, unaccompanied children must be handed over within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Social Services, which is responsible for caring for migrant children, except in exceptional circumstances.

Once taken care of, case managers will work to place children with a sponsor, such as a parent or relative, in the United States, but due to the coronavirus pandemic and precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 , the department was only able to use a little more than half of the beds it has for children.

CNN reported last week that the average time spent in border patrol facilities, which are not designed to accommodate children, was 77 hours, more than the 72 hours allowed by U.S. law.

This trend seems to continue. More than 1,300 children have been detained by the border patrol for more than 72 hours, according to documents. The majority of children are 13 and over.

This story has been updated with additional reports.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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