According to a recent article from Axios, more than 700 alien minors who crossed into the United States without their parents were in Border Patrol custody as of Sunday, states an internal CBP document.
Making matters worse, border crossings usually peak in the spring, and it's only February, plus December 2020 saw more crossings and subsequently more arrests than any December in the past decade.
Of the more than 700 kids waiting to be transferred to soft-sided shelters overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 200 had been held in these chain-link Border Patrol stations for more than 48 hours. According to the internal document, nine minors had even been detained for longer than the agreed-upon limit of 72 hours.
During Wednesday's White House media briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki blamed some of the detentions delays on the bad weather and pushed back on an intuitive question highlighting the lack of difference between minor detention between the current and past administration.
She stated: We have a couple of options: We can send them back home. ... We can quickly transfer them from CPB to these HHS-run facilities. ... We can put them with families and sponsors without any vetting. We've chosen the middle option."
CBP is supposed to have short-term custody of migrants before adults and families are transferred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS. Nonetheless, in January, at least 179 migrant minors spent more than three days in CBP custody, as well as at least 48 kids in December, reports Axios.
The Biden administration has already been forced to open a soft-sided influx shelter in Texas for child migrants, which can add tent-like structures.
According to one administration official, more than 400 migrant kids were referred to HHS shelters just on Tuesday. For comparison, the 2019 surge averaged 30 minor referrals per day—a dim outlook for the possibility that the Biden Administration would successfully deter another border surge.
For the complete article, please visit Axios.
