Newsman: Customs and Border Protection is on pace to encounter more individuals on the border than in the last 20 years, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday, adding that the agency is coming across children as young as six and seven years old. More than 4,200 minors are currently in custody, with an average time of 120 hours. More than 300 unaccompanied migrant children have been in Border Patrol custody for more than 10 days, according to CNNreport.
President Joe Biden discouraged would-be migrants from coming to the United States as the administration scrambles to respond to the surge of migrant children.
“I can say quite clearly: Don’t come,” Biden told ABC in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
“We’re in the process of getting set up. Don’t leave your town or city or community,” he added.
Children are alternating schedules to make space for one another in confined facilities, some kids haven’t seen sunlight in days, and others are taking turns showering, often going days without one. That’s the reality for the thousands of unaccompanied migrant children held up in US Border Patrol custody for days on end, according to case managers, attorneys and Border Patrol agents. With an increasing number of children crossing the US-Mexico border alone, Border Patrol facilities are where kids have to stay until officials can transfer them to shelters that are appropriate for them. These facilities are designed to care for adults, not kids, and are akin to jail-like facilities with concrete walls and benches.
With an increasing number of children crossing the US-Mexico border alone, Border Patrol facilities are where kids have to stay until officials can transfer them to shelters that are appropriate for them. These facilities are designed to care for adults, not kids, and are akin to jail-like facilities with concrete walls and benches.
Asked about in-custody numbers, a Homeland Security official told CNN: “It’s terrible, it’s going up, it’s bad … we’re bludgeoned, totally over capacity.”
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The experiences of migrant children arriving to the US underscore the unexpected challenge facing accommodating the growing number of kids crossing the US-Mexico border alone against the backdrop of a pandemic that’s strained resources, particularly shelter space.
“There are kids that have been there days and days,” an agent told CNN, pointing out that the agency is abiding by the law to care for children, except it is unable to meet the 72-hour legal requirement. “You just can’t right now.”
Federal law requires unaccompanied children to be turned over within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees a shelter network designed to house minors.
The senior official heading Customs and Border Protection, Troy Miller, told reporters that minors receive three meals daily, have 24/7 access to snacks and drinks and that showers are provided at least every 48 hours. They also have access to a recreation area, Miller said.
Mayorkas, who is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Homeland Security Committee, acknowledged the scope of the problem.
“The Border Patrol facilities have become crowded with children and the 72-hour timeframe for the transfer of children from the Border Patrol to [HHS] is not always met,” the Homeland Security secretary said in a statement Tuesday.
“HHS has not had the capacity to intake the number of unaccompanied children we have been encountering,” Mayorkas said. “March will be bigger than February,” in terms of apprehensions based on current data “and quite ugly” the Homeland Security official said.
In February, more than 9,400 children — ranging in ages — crossed the US-Mexico border, according to the latest available data from Customs and Border Protection. That’s up from January and is expected to continue trending upward.
On Monday, CBP encountered around 570 unaccompanied children and Seventy-six were 12 years old and under, CNN reported..
Bunk beds have been brought in to one of the processing facilities to help accommodate the influx of children. “Some of those are up to three bunks high,” an agent told CNN, adding that children are also sleeping on plastic cots and mats on the floor and benches.
