More than 5,000 unaccompanied children are held by CBP, documents say

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The growing number of unaccompanied children at the border is adding greater stress to the system and overwhelming resources, which had already been strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest update comes as the Biden administration rushes to devise solutions to deal with the evolving situation on the US-Mexico border – which the administration does not call a crisis – including the strengthening of the reception capacity of unaccompanied children and the acceleration of the process that would do so. allow them to leave government more quickly.

There are more than 600 children who have been in detention for more than 10 days, according to the documents. Federal law requires unaccompanied children to be turned over within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees a network of shelters designed to house minors, but amid the stresses of the pandemic, children remain in detention longer than the 72- hour limit.

On average, children are detained by the border patrol in prison-type facilities for an average of more than five days.

In this context, children alternate schedules to make room in confined facilities, some children have not seen sunlight for days and others take turns showering, often on days without, according to case managers, lawyers and the border patrol. agents.

Bunk beds were brought into one of the treatment facilities to help accommodate the influx of children. “Some of them are up to three bunk beds,” an agent told CNN, adding that children also sleep on cots and plastic mats on the floor and benches.

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, a former CBP official told CNN.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas led a bipartisan Senate delegation to El Paso, Texas on Friday to see what is happening on the ground. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted about the overcrowded conditions.

“I just left the border processing facility. Hundreds of children crammed into large open rooms. In a corner, I held back my tears as a 13-year-old girl sobbed uncontrollably as she explained to a translator how terrified she was to have been separated from her grandmother and without her parents, ”said he said on Twitter.

Once the children are placed in the custody of the Border Patrol, they are turned over to HHS. But the ministry has been strained to cope with the influx, as shelters until recently operated with limited capacity due to the pandemic.

This week, the administration transformed a convention center in Dallas, Texas, into an emergency reception site for more than 2,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the US-Mexico border. Up to 1,200 migrant children are expected to arrive at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, an HHS official told CNN on Saturday. The first group of migrant children arrived on Wednesday.

HHS also plans to activate the Target Lodge Pecos North property as another temporary influx care facility in Texas for unaccompanied migrant children, the department told CNN.

The property will initially accommodate around 500 children, with potential for expansion to 2,000, the ministry said, but it did not provide a date when the lodge will be used.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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