WASHINGTON – The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arrested for crossing the U.S. southern border illegally increased by more than 50% in February compared to the previous month, people familiar with the matter said, and the prospect of ‘ a humanitarian crisis arose there.
Some 2,200 children crossed the border illegally weekly in February, and the pace is increasing as the month progresses, people said. The government plans to arrest about 9,000 children by the end of February.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that they arrested 5,707 unaccompanied children in January, an increase of 18% compared to the previous month. The increasing number of children in detention is beginning the government’s ability to properly house and care for.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. CBP said it would not share the specific number of unaccompanied children detained outside the monthly totals, saying the figure is a sensitive issue in law enforcement, adding that it continues to process children in front of others to prioritize migrants.
The Biden government tried to avoid a repeat of the humanitarian border crises in 2014 and 2019 when waves of unaccompanied migrant children and families overwhelmed federal facilities.
Until February, the pace of children arriving at the border unaccompanied remained lower than in one of the previous waves. The government’s task of looking after the children was already complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The space in the government’s network of child welfare shelters, which is run by the Department of Health and Human Services’ refugee resettlement office, has been reduced by 40% to do away with social.
This meant that the government reached its capacity much faster than before the pandemic. The government opened an emergency shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas this week to accommodate more children.
If the children cannot be sent to shelters quickly, they remain under the supervision of the Border Patrol. Cells in border patrol facilities are not designed to house children, and their agents are not trained to care for children.
As of Friday, more than 900 children in Border Patrol stations were waiting to be transferred to a shelter, according to a person familiar with the number, and 100 of them waited longer than the 72-hour limit.
President Biden has proposed a comprehensive immigration reform plan. But as WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains, he’s facing an uphill climb that could be even more difficult than previous governments have faced. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
Illegal border crossings by unaccompanied children, families and single adults have been increasing since the summer due to a mix of factors. The pandemic has exacerbated the economic situation in Mexico and Central America, where most migrants come from.
The Biden government has tried to find a balance in its policies on the southern border, indicating that immigrants want to work for lawyers to block former President Donald Trump’s policies restricting access to the asylum system, while also a send message to prospective migrants – English and Spanish – now is not the time to make the journey north.
White House officials are working with Latin American governments to spread the word and, in some cases, call in foreign agents to return migrants to the southern United States.
The Biden government has released an emergency public health order issued by former President Trump during the pandemic, allowing border agents to quickly return most of the migrants they encounter, and skip the formal arrest process. . In such cases, migrants were not allowed to seek asylum, a legal protection that anyone could seek if they were fleeing political, religious or other persecution in their home countries.
Although it is illegal to cross the border, U.S. law allows foreigners to apply for asylum no matter how they entered the country. According to Justice Department data, most people seeking asylum in the U.S. eventually lose their case.
In November, a court ordered the Trump administration to stop enforcing the public health emergency policy on children. An appeals court overturned the ruling after President Biden took office, but his government chose not to continue sending children back to their home countries.
“We believe it is our best option to have these children processed through HHS facilities where Covid protocols exist, where they are safe, where they can access educational and medical care,” said Jen Psaki, press secretary of the White House, said on Thursday.
Republicans and former Trump administration officials have criticized the Biden administration for the decision, saying it contributed to the recent rise.
“This is a crisis that has been inflicted on itself,” said Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump and an architect of his immigration policy, said in an interview.
Write to Michelle Hackman by [email protected]
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