Biden administration spends $ 62 million a week caring for unaccompanied migrant children

Biden administration spends $ 62 million a week caring for unaccompanied migrant children

by

Over the past month, HHS has announced or opened at least 11 new facilities with more underway, leaning on conference centers, military sites and influxes to try to retrieve children from Border Patrol stations, which are similar to jail-like conditions and not suitable for children. The department oversees a shelter network for migrant children, but capacity has been reduced in recent years following the pandemic, which caused the agency to scramble to bring more expensive temporary facilities online.

The daily cost per child is more than twice the amount of the department’s already established shelter program – about $ 775 a day, compared to about $ 290 a day – according to figures shared with CNN and first reported by the Washington Post is. HHS mentions the need to develop facilities and hire staff over a short period of time, and these are the reasons why temporary shelters are more expensive.

In total, the sites will provide more than 16,000 beds to accommodate children, in addition to the approximately 13,721 beds in the department’s permanent shelter program, which until recently operated under a lower capacity due to Covid-19.

According to HHS, there are about 8,876 children occupying beds in the department’s licensed shelter program, and about 8,124 children on the temporary sites.

Despite the higher spending, a White House official told CNN this week that there are no plans for Congress to ask for extra funding from now on. In 2019, during that year’s border crisis, the Trump administration asked for $ 4.5 billion in emergency funding.
Biden's border coordinator retires at the end of the month

Asked about the steep costs on Friday, Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, quoted 2019. “The previous administration received – and received – nearly $ 3 billion in additional Congressional funding for the (unaccompanied children) program back in 2019,” she said, adding that millions of others had previously been transferred to the program.

In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 18,890 unaccompanied children, a record high and nearly double the number of child fears in February, according to the agency’s data. The increase in arrivals has led to overcrowded conditions in border facilities and consequently an urgent need to accommodate facilities for children.

“By activating temporary shelters – and having potential shelters on reserve status – (the Refugee Relocation Office) is the ability to respond to ever-changing levels of referrals and in this case an emergency,” the department said in said a statement. and adds that it is difficult to predict the final cost given the continuing need.

In March 2021, 13,832 children were transferred unaccompanied to the care of the Refugee Relocation Office, the federal agency under HHS that commissioned child care, which according to HHS is the most referral in the program’s history.

The increasing number of children in HHS supervision indicates some progress as the number of unaccompanied migrant children in Border Patrol facilities decreases. But it will probably also increase the weekly cost.

According to Thursday, there were 16,941 children under the supervision of HHS and 3,881 under the supervision of CBP – an agency not equipped to care for children – according to the latest available government data.

The number of children encountered daily still exceeds those discharged from HHS, meaning there are more arrivals than exemptions to sponsors, indicating the need for more capacity.

“The basic problem right now is that more children are arriving every day than are released to parents and sponsors. There will continue to be more capacity unless the number of children arriving decreases or HHS is able to release children faster,” he said. says Mark Greenberg, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former HHS official.

“The most important thing it achieves is to get children out of CBP holding facilities, which is very busy, and it is by no means a good place for children, especially not during the pandemic,” Greenberg said, referring to after capacity building.

According to the internal documents obtained by CNN, the average duration in HHS custody is 31 days. The time in custody varies between sponsor categories, ranging from parents or guardians to distant family members. Children in custody who have a parent or guardian in the U.S. are likely to be discharged from the bail within an average of 25 days, compared to an unrelated sponsor or family member that can last 54 days, the documents show.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, in more than 80% of cases, the child has a family member in the United States.

Biden’s administration is trying to speed up the process and encourage parents or guardians, many of whom are undocumented, to remove their children from custody. But until a sponsor is identified and investigated, children remain under U.S. supervision.

.Source