Thousands of migrants from Central America, many of them unaccompanied children, have been crossing the southern border in recent days, overwhelming government agents.
Many of those trying to cross the border were told by Mexican officials that they could enter the United States. In one camp on the Mexican side of the border, which was set up two years ago, some asylum seekers were told they could reopen their cases and could eventually enter the US to await the asylum process, according to a CBS report .
Mexican authorities have long tried to close the makeshift camps set up by migrants.
The new influx is mainly due to the instability and increasing COVID-19 infection rates in Central American countries, as well as the perception of a shift in immigration rules under the Biden government, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Last week, border patrol agents reported that 350 children a day would cross into the U.S. without their parents, according to reports more than last year.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency that works to house underage minors, said they process an average of 337 children a day. In January, the agency’s shelters arrived in the U.S. with more than 4,000 minor minors, a 19 percent increase since December, according to the CBS report. The figure is the highest the agency recorded in February. In February 2019, according to CBS, the agency admitted nearly 5,900 minors.
Unaccompanied children must be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours. There are currently 7,700 minor minors under the care of HHS, which earlier this year opened an overflow shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for children between the ages of 13 and 17. According to a Pentagon spokesman, the agency also ” a ‘site survey’ out at a military barracks in Fort Lee, Virginia to find other temporary housing.
In the past, overflow facilities are operating under limited capacity due to the coronavirus, but on Friday, the Biden administration informed HHS that they could reopen facilities to pre-pandemic levels, an indication that the boom is likely to rise, according to a CNN reported last week.