Greg Abbott: “Twice as many children are under Biden on border patrol below Trump’s peak in 2019.”
PolitiFact’s ruling: Where
This is why: Unaccompanied minors have arrived at the southern U.S. border in record numbers since the acceptance of President Joe Biden, and Republican leaders in border states have quickly highlighted the challenges the federal government faces.
Government Greg Abbott has been hammering the Biden administration throughout March. First, he accuses the administration of ‘reckless border policy’ that released migrants who tested positive for COVID-19 in the US. Over the past week, the governor has focused on the rise of underage minors arriving at the border.
On March 30, Abbott claimed in a tweet that “twice as many children under Biden are under the border patrol as the Trump highlight in 2019.”
‘The Biden admin. are unprepared for the crises they have caused, ”Abbott continued, adding that the state police and the national army had been sent to help the situation.
2019 was the last year that the border authorities recorded an increase in migration and family crossings. And the authorities believe that the number of encounters this year will exceed the levels seen at the time.
But is it true that the number of minor minors in federal custody today is already twice the highest number recorded in 2019 under former President Donald Trump?
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‘The numbers are going to pile up’
Abbott’s claim cites an article published Tuesday by the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper in Washington, DC. Referring to ‘federal data obtained exclusively Monday night’, the website reported the same claim.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the numbers. Under Trump, in June 2019, the government recorded a peak of 2,600 minor minors in federal custody. 19 precautions.
The Biden government suspended the policy for children in January and allows children who cross the border alone to stay in the US while awaiting immigration court proceedings.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection also released a daily memo to PolitiFact reporting the number of unaccompanied children in government custody. As of March 29, 5,160 unsupervised children were in custody, which is almost twice the number recorded in June 2019.
The memo also reported that an average of 492 unaccompanied children are placed in federal supervision each day in March, while an average of 399 are transferred out of supervision daily.
With the intake of facilities consistently exceeding production, these numbers will naturally increase, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told reporters during a March 26 briefing.
Migrant children can be detained at the border patrol facilities for a maximum of 72 hours, a rule set out in the Victims’ Trade Empowerment Act of 2008. From there, children are referred to the Refugee Relocation Office, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Services, which have the task of caring for minors and connecting them with suitable sponsors.
But the strain placed on the system by the large number of migrant children has led to many minors being detained outside the 72-hour border at the border patrol facilities. (The Trump administration also struggled to meet the limit.) On March 30, for example, more than 2,000 children were detained in a border patrol in Donna, according to Pro Publica.
“We need to work better to ensure that HHS and ORR have greater capacity, and we need to accelerate the transfer of these children from our supervision to their supervision much faster,” the border patrol officer said.
The Biden administration has rushed to establish greater capacity in the refugee relocation office to alleviate the bottleneck in the border patrol facilities. The agency has activated or opened what it calls in-stream care facilities, which are unlicensed care facilities that provide surplus shelter and can be erected within a few weeks, and emergency inlets, which are new facilities that serve as away stations for unaccompanied children. according to the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, he is moving from border patrol to the refugee office.
Many of these new or temporary shelters have opened across Texas. Inflow care facilities are now operating in Carrizo Springs and Pecos; emergency inlets have opened in a conference center in Dallas and a former camp for oil workers in Midland.
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Migration Managers
It is difficult to determine the exact factors that are leading to today’s numbers of unaccompanied children doubling the peak of 2019, experts say.
Immigration experts often separate migration managers into two categories: pressure factors, or the conditions in countries of origin that cause people to leave home; and migration factors, or the conditions of a destination country that make it a more attractive place to live.
U.S. immigration policy is often listed as a major draw, and Biden who relaxes policy after Trump’s immigration sobriety is often cited as an important one.
But many experts believe that it is the pressure factors in migrants’ home countries that are the drivers of migration to the US. In 2019, Honduras struggled with civil unrest and an increase in gang violence, while Guatemala struggled with environmental issues affecting the food security of the population. .
This year, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua suffered two Category 4 hurricanes that hit the region within two weeks. As millions in aid are needed, the hurricanes have exacerbated poverty and worsened access to clean water, forcing people to consider northern migration extra.
“The hurricanes made a big difference,” said Yael Schacher, senior U.S. attorney at Refugees International. “People were in a situation where they just recovered, and then the hurricane wiped them out.”
Our verdict
Abbott said in a tweet that twice as many unaccompanied children are currently on border patrol as during the peak number seen under Trump in 2019.
Numbers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirm this claim. In June 2019, the Trump administration detained 2,600 minors at the border patrol, which was the highest amount seen during Trump’s term.
On March 29, 5,160 minors were in border patrol custody waiting to be transferred to the Refugee Relocation Office, which is 40 minors less than double 2600.
We judge this claim to be true.
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Sources
Tweet, Greg Abbott, 30 March 2021
Washington Examiner, twice as many children are under Biden under border patrol as Trump’s highlight in 2019, March 30, 2021
PolitiFact Texas, Border Constraint of Minors Due to Numerous Factors, Biden Policy Among Them, March 29, 2021
Emails with Nate Peeters, US Office of Public Customs and Border Protection, March 31, 2021
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Daily Report for Unaccompanied Children, March 30, 2021
U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Background with U.S. Border Patrol Officer, Final Transcript, March 26, 2021
New York Times, ‘No place for a child’: inside the tent camp housing thousands of migrant children, March 30, 2021
Interview with Yael Schacher, Senior American Attorney at Refugees International, April 1, 2021
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, FACT SHEET for Unaccompanied Children (UC), March 1, 2021
Pro Publica, “No good choices”: HHS cuts safety corners to move migrant children from overcrowded facilities, 1 April 2021
The US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, the arrival of unaccompanied children is a humanitarian challenge – but a solvable one, March 2021
Congressional Research Service, the Flores Settlement and Alien Families Trapped on the U.S. Border: Frequently Asked Questions, September 17, 2018