Bunk beds were brought to one of the processing facilities to help the influx of children. “Some of them are up to three stacks high,” an agent told CNN, adding that children also sleep on plastic beds and rugs on the floor and benches.
Customs and border protection is on the verge of encountering more individuals at the border than in the past 20 years, Interior Minister Alejandro Mayorkas said on Tuesday, adding that the agency encounters children as young as six and seven years old.
More than 300 unaccompanied migrant children have been in border patrol for more than ten days, CNN has learned. More than 4,200 minors are currently in custody, with an average time of 120 hours.
A Home Affairs official told CNN: “It’s awful, it’s going on, it’s bad … we’re frustrated, completely over capacity.”
“I can say very clearly: do not come,” Biden told ABC in an interview aired Tuesday.
“We are setting up. Do not leave your town or city or community,” he added.
The experiences of migrating children arriving in the US highlight the great challenge facing the Biden government. It accommodates the growing number of children crossing the border between America and Mexico alone against the backdrop of a pandemic with many resources, especially shelter.
There are a myriad of reasons why children travel to the border between America and Mexico. Lots of flight from poverty and violence in Central America.
“There is such a misconception that they benefit or come here for economic opportunities. But it is children who flee for basic needs, for safety, shelter, food,” said a source who oversees case managers who work with children. . . “Imagine what it’s like to be a refugee child coming to the United States during the pandemic.”
Marisa Limón Garza, deputy director of the Hope Border Institute, which works directly with migrants, said some families at the border made the choice to send their children alone.
“It involves great sacrifice. I do not think it is lost for one of these parents. It is a bad choice,” Limón Garza said.
Why keep children in jail for more than the law allows?
With an increasing number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, the border patrol is where children must stay until officials can move them to shelters suitable for them. These facilities are designed for the care of adults, not children, and are similar to prison-like facilities with concrete walls and benches.
Children at stations in the Tucson, Arizona region, for example, must be transported from border patrol stations to a central coordination center to get moods, the border patrol agent told CNN.
“There are children who have been there for days and days,” the agent said, pointing out that the agency is complying with the law to look after children, except that it cannot meet the legal requirement of 72 hours. “You just can not now.”
Under federal law, unaccompanied children must be transferred within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees a shelter network designed to house minors.
Customs and Border Protection senior official Troy Miller told reporters that minors receive three meals a day, have 24/7 access to snacks and drinks and that showers are offered at least every 48 hours. They also have access to a recreation area, Miller said.
Mayorkas, who will testify before the Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, acknowledged the scale of the problem.
“The border patrol facilities became overcrowded with children and the 72-hour period for the transfer of children from the border patrol to [HHS] not always met, ”the Secretary of Homeland Security said in a statement on Tuesday.
“HHS did not have the ability to take in the number of unaccompanied children we encountered,” Mayorkas said.
On Monday, CBP encountered about 570 unaccompanied children, CNN has learned. Seventy-six were 12 years old and younger.
“March will be bigger than February,” in terms of anxiety based on current data, “and quite ugly,” the Homeland Security official said.
Action on the ground
Over the weekend, Mayorkas embarked on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help relocate children from the custody of the border patrol and to shelters that suit them best.
“It’s busy and difficult, but manageable,” a Homeland Security official said as the department dealt with the situation on the ground.
DHS has begun two groups to coordinate and respond to the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border, one led by the secretary and another led by the deputy secretary, the official said. Both groups met several times each week, the official told CNN, in addition to regular calls and updates.
“When he asks questions and asks for details, it’s not just a report on the numbers – what are the things we already have in our toolbox that we can use?” added the official, saying he encouraged staff to think outside the box. “Every little space in the White House operations and different agencies spends time and resources on it and that’s what it’s going to take.”
HHS also called on volunteers in the department to deploy to border stations to help children process and expedite their release to a sponsor, such as a parent or family member, in the United States, according to a memo received by CNN .
According to Kenneth Wolfe, a spokeswoman for the department, there are more than 9,300 in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency under HHS.
‘The first time these children feel safe, possibly in years, is when they have a [Office of Refugee Resettlement] shelter, ”said Nathan Bult, senior vice president of public and government affairs for Bethany Christian Services, who works directly with unaccompanied children.
“That’s why it’s so important to provide high quality care for these children,” Bult said.
Rosa Flores of CNN contributed to this report.