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"For those of us who are tasked with promoting the health and safety of children, it's a shocking guideline," said Amy Cohen, a psychiatrist who consults the agency. Flores team and regularly interviews children in shelters. "This violates all the basic principles of child protection and will further damage the medical and psychological health of children fleeing extremely dangerous circumstances in their home country."
After being intercepted by the Border Patrol, migrant children are sent to government-approved shelters across the country, where they stay until a sponsor, usually a parent already living in the United States, can prove that he is fit to take care of the child. . Nearly 41,000 migrant children were arrested by the government during this fiscal year beginning October 1, about 60% more than last year. Federal officials predicted that a record number of people could arrive by the end of the year.
Critics of the service reduction plan said the costs had been increased because children were being held for long periods of time instead of being handed over to family or friends. According to Dr. Cohen, the current length of stay, which ranges from 50 to 75 days, is twice as long as in the Obama years.
"I have interviewed children detained for more than a year despite a fully competent family sponsor and willing to do so," said Dr. Cohen. "I interviewed an increasingly desperate child who had been there for four months while a close, safe parent was ready to take it."
It is often because of the rigorous standards the government imposes before releasing children to a private sponsor. In some cases, social workers under contract with the government feel that the home of sponsoring families is insufficient to accommodate a child, often because they are very modest. In other cases, potential sponsors, such as uncles and aunts, have difficulty proving the existence of a pre-existing link with a child, for lack of photographic elements for example even when the child and family members at home confirm the link.
During a testimony before a credit sub-committee in the House in April, Secretary of Social Services and Health Alex Azar said the system was short of beds and warned that At the current rate of arrivals, the funds available would not be enough. "We need help," he said.
Educational and recreational activities allow children to engage for a large part of the day and help to avoid behavioral problems, say the shelter operators. At least one operator said he would refuse to cancel educational and recreational activities that are important for the well-being of children.
"We do not have and we 're not going to restrict recreation and education. We simply can not do that, "said Kevin Dinnin, president of BCFS, the second-largest shelter system, which hosts approximately 1,000 children in Texas facilities. "We will have to use the reserve funds until the government knows what it is going to do."
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