According to the documents dated Monday, more than 3,200 migrant children were unaccompanied in customs and border protection. Of these, about 2,600 are waiting for shelters for minors, but there were just over 500 beds available.
The latest data comes on the heels of a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border by top administration officials to assess the situation on the ground amid an increasing number of arrests and indicates a rapidly increasing trend of unaccompanied children coming to the US. Less than a week ago, there were about 1,700 children in border patrol surveillance.
As of Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden has not been informed by his top assistants about the weekend trip, which includes a visit to a facility for unaccompanied migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas – the first facility for migrant children to open since Biden the office was taken.
A well-known person said that the officials were finding facts, and many took notes during their conversations. Biden is expected to be notified in the coming days if assistants have spent part of the trip comparing notes and planning how to present the information to the president.
Among those who went was Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, who now heads Biden’s Home Policy Council. A source familiar with the visit told CNN that Rice was busy during the visit and sometimes pressured officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, who run the shelters for unaccompanied migrants, about how they were preparing for the boom. respond and process migrant children more effectively.
The increasing number of unaccompanied children has sounded the alarm among officials scrambling to find shelter to care for children amid an ongoing pandemic, which has led to some beds being unoccupied to comply with health guidelines.
Monday’s data shows the ongoing bottleneck in the system, with more children being detained than the U.S. government is willing to care for. It also highlights the obstacles facing the Biden government as it seeks to tackle a more humanitarian approach to immigration while juggling reality at the border.
The numbers are overwhelming. By comparison, at the height of the 2019 2019 border crisis – when there were overcrowded facilities and children sleeping on the ground – there were about 2,600 children unaccompanied in border patrols, a former CBP official told CNN.
Chief of Staff Julissa Reynoso briefly discussed her trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a delegation of senior administration officials, which also included Rice Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
‘We did talk to many of those involved, including children. We try to deal with it in an orderly manner, but very mindful of the human cost here, and in light of the fact that we are talking about children. something we manage, ‘Reynoso told reporters on Monday.
The group flew in a military plane from Washington and made their first stop at the CBP tent facility in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, which processed undocumented migrants. From there, the group flies north along the border to Laredo, where they land and drive to the facility that houses children in Carrizo Springs. The trip lasted most of Saturday.
At the two sites, officials spoke with some of the people who run their administration, with some of the CBP and HHS officials working there, and some of the migrants detained in the facilities, including some of the children. Several officials spoke Spanish and were able to communicate directly with the migrants detained.
Once in care, case managers will work to place children with a sponsor, such as a parent or family member, in the U.S., but due to the coronavirus pandemic and precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the department only manages to use a little more than half of the beds for children.
It seems that the trend continues. According to documents, more than 1,300 children were detained by the border patrol for more than 72 hours. The majority of children are 13 years old and older.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.