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More than 700 children who crossed from Mexico to the United States without their parents were in border patrol custody on Sunday, according to an internal customs and border protection document obtained by Axios.
Why is this important: The current safeguard is yet another sign of a brewing crisis for President Biden – and a growing dilemma for these vulnerable children. Biden finds it easier to talk about preventing children from warehousing at the southern border than it is to solve the problem.
- To make matters worse, border crossings usually peak in the spring, and it isn’t until February.
In the wings: Of the more than 700 children waiting to be transferred to shelters overseen by the US Department of Health and Human Services, more than 200 had been held in these border patrol posts for more than 48 hours.
- Nine had been held longer than the agreed 72-hour limit, according to the internal document, which timestamped the current data as 8:15 a.m. on February 21.
At Wednesday’s press conference at the White House, Press secretary Jen Psaki admitted that some children had been detained for four or five days – or more.
- She attributed some of the delays to inclement weather that closed Texas last week, saying some long-term shelters “had no electricity and were not in a location where they had the capacity to accommodate these children. and do it safely. “
- She also rejected – harshly – an equivalence between the treatment of children by current and past administrations, which usually come from countries in Central America, on the US-Mexico border.
- While president, Donald Trump was criticized for separating children from their parents. This policy is no longer in place, although a growing number of children arriving now are unaccompanied, which means they are being held alone anyway.
What they say: “We have two options: we can send them home. … We can quickly transfer them from CPB to these facilities run by HHS. … We can put them with families and sponsors without any control,” he said. said Psaki. “We chose the middle option.”
During the 2019 outbreak, Government watchdogs have found severe overcrowding and hygiene, health and safety issues at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reception facilities, which are of particular concern to children.
- CBP is only intended to have short-term custody of migrants before adults and families are transferred to the US Immigration and Customs Agency and unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS.
- Nonetheless, in January at least 179 migrant minors spent more than three days in CBP detention, along with at least 48 children in December, CBS News’s Camilo Montoya-Galvez reported this week.
What to watch: Coronavirus protocols have also significantly reduced the number of children who can be held in HHS shelters over the longer term.
- The Biden administration has previously been forced to open a temporary influx shelter in Texas for migrant children, which also has the ability to add tent-like structures.
Over 400 migrant children were referred to HHS shelters on Tuesday only, according to an administration official.
- That’s a catchy number, especially compared to the 30-day benchmark average at the height of the 2019 crisis – which was 294.
Conclusion: The Biden administration ended the use of an emergency health ordinance that allowed the Trump administration to quickly deport migrant children who had crossed the border.
- Some experts now say the reversal of Biden’s policy is in part the reason for the recent increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the border.
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