More than 4,000 migrant children are in U.S. custody in border facilities between the United States and Mexico.
The Biden administration is mobilizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help speed up the process of helping unaccompanied migrant minors at the U.S. border.
“The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Saturday evening that the federal government is working to move unaccompanied children from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to the Department of Health and Human Services and ‘place them with a family member or sponsor until their immigration is adjudicated,’” NPR reported.
The facilities are short-term holding facilities that include “jail-like stations unfit to house minors,” according to government records reviewed by CBS News. The children are staying for longer than the legal limits on custody.
“The current average time the children spend in facilities typically designed to hold adult males for 24 hours, has increased to 117 hours — 45 hours longer than the legal limits on custody,” ABC News reported.
Many of the facilities are over capacity.
“According to government data, CBP sectors in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, Texas — as well as Yuma and Tucson, Arizona — are all over capacity when it comes to their space to house unaccompanied children,” CBS News reported. “With more than 2,500 unaccompanied minors in custody, the Rio Grande Valley sector is currently at 363% capacity.”
Due to the pandemic, there are supposed to be lower capacity numbers. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar told ABC News most children are fed and can watch movies, but it falls short of correct social distancing.
“There was no social distancing. This facility is at capacity,” said Escobar of the facility she visited in El Paso, Texas, according to ABC News.
Taking care of all of the needs of the children is challenging due to CDC guidelines.
“As a result of the public health imperative, adults and accompanied children are subject to COVID-19 related travel restrictions and are returned to Mexico under the statutory authority of the CDC,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement according to NPR.
There is currently movement to increase Health and Human Services facilities on the border so that children are able to follow CDC guidelines.
“The data indicates that most of the children, over 2,600 of them, have been fully processed by Border Patrol officials, but are waiting to be transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) facilities, which are designed to shelter minors,” ABC News reported.
The number of children at the border continues to grow in wait of new facilities.
“The number of teens apprehended at the border is increasing weekly, averaging at over 500 in the past two weeks and putting the total number of possible apprehensions at an unprecedented 15,000 over a four-week span,” ABC News reported.
