WASHINGTON – The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. southern border is up more than 50% in February compared to the previous month, say people familiar with the case, raising the prospect of a humanitarian crisis arises there.
About 2,200 children crossed the border every week in February, and the pace is picking up as the month goes on, some of the people said. The government predicts that approximately 9,000 children will be detained by the end of February.
US Customs and Border Protection reported that it detained 5,707 unaccompanied children in January, an 18% increase from the previous month. The growing number of children in custody is starting to put a strain on the government’s ability to house and care for them properly.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. CBP said it would not share the specific number of unaccompanied children detained outside of monthly totals, saying it was a sensitive issue for law enforcement, adding that it continued to prioritize the processing of the children above other migrants.
The Biden administration has sought to prevent a repeat of the humanitarian border crises of 2014 and 2019, when waves of unaccompanied migrant children and families overwhelmed federal facilities.
Until February, the pace of unaccompanied children arriving at the border remained slower than in both previous waves. The government’s job of looking after the children was already complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The space in the government network of childcare centers, managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services, has been reduced by 40% to allow for social distance.
That means the government has reached capacity much faster than before the pandemic. The government opened an emergency shelter this week in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to house more children.
If the children cannot be quickly sent to shelters, they will remain under the supervision of border guards. Cells in Border Patrol facilities are not designed to house children and the officers are not trained to care for children.
On Friday, more than 900 children were waiting in border patrol posts to be transferred to a shelter, according to a person familiar with the number, with 100 of them waiting longer than the legally permitted 72-hour limit.
President Biden has proposed a comprehensive immigration reform plan. But as WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains, he faces a climb that could be even tougher than previous governments. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
The number of illegal border crossings by unaccompanied children, families and single adults has been increasing since the summer due to a combination of factors. The pandemic has worsened the economic situation in Mexico and Central America, where most of the migrants come from.
The Biden administration has tried to balance its southern border policy by signaling to immigration advocates that it is working to reverse former President Donald Trump’s policy of restricting access to the asylum system, while sending a message to potential migrants – in English and Spanish – now is not the time to make the journey north.
White House officials are working with Latin American governments to spread the message and, in some cases, are using foreign agents to return migrants to the borders south of the US.
The Biden administration has released a public health emergency warrant issued by former President Trump during the pandemic that allows border agents to quickly reverse most migrants they encounter and skip the process of formal arrest. In such cases, migrants are not allowed to apply for asylum, a legal protection that anyone can seek when fleeing political, religious or other persecution in their home country.
While it is illegal to cross the border without permission, US law allows foreigners to apply for asylum regardless of how they entered the country. According to Justice Department data, most people who apply for asylum in the US end up losing their cases.
In November, a court ordered the Trump administration to stop applying emergency public health policies to children. An appeals court overturned that decision after President Biden took office, but his government chose not to proceed with the return of children to their home countries.
“Our best option, in our opinion, is to have these children processed through HHS facilities where Covid protocols exist, where they are safe, where they have access to educational and medical care,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. . on Thursday.
Republicans and former Trump administration officials have criticized the Biden administration for that decision, saying it contributed to the recent rise.
“This is a self-inflicted crisis,” said Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump and an architect on his immigration policy, in an interview.
Write to Michelle Hackman at [email protected]
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