WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – The Biden administration is turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help in managing and caring for record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children pouring into the United States by illegally crossing the border into Mexico.
FEMA will support a government effort over the next three months to safely receive, house and transfer underage children arriving alone at the US southwest border, without a parent or other adult, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Saturday.
Government figures show a growing crisis at the border as hundreds of children illegally enter the US from Mexico every day and are taken into custody.
The Homeland Security Department is believed to process and hand over unaccompanied minor children to the Department of Health and Human Services within three days so that they can be placed with a parent already residing in the United States, or other appropriate sponsor until their immigration files can. are being solved.
But more children are being held longer in Border Patrol facilities not designed with their care in mind, as long-term shelters managed by the Department of Health and Human Services have almost no capacity to house them. Children are picked up daily at much higher rates than HHS can release to parents or sponsors.
Mayorkas said FEMA is working with the Health and Human Services Division to “explore every option available to rapidly expand physical capacity for suitable accommodation.”
“Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS as soon as possible, in accordance with legal requirements and in the best interest of the children,” Mayorkas said.
During a record flow of unaccompanied minors in 2014, the Obama administration also turned to FEMA for help coordinating the government-wide response. During that crisis, FEMA helped set up temporary shelters and processing stations on military bases.
President Joe Biden has ended the Trump-era practice of expelling immigrant children who cross the border on their own, but has maintained the expulsion of immigrant families and single adults.
Although his administration has tried to stop immigrants from entering the US, many think they have a better chance now that Biden is president.
There are also increasing reports of parents sending their children across the border alone while they are in Mexico or Central America.
Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Houston contributed to this report.