Thousands of Central American migrants, many of them unaccompanied children, have flocked across the southern border in recent days, overwhelming government agents.
Many of those attempting to cross the border had been told by Mexican officials that they could enter the US. In a camp on the Mexican side of the border set up two years ago, some asylum seekers were told they could reopen their cases and eventually enter the US to await the asylum process. CBS report.
Mexican authorities have long tried to shut down the makeshift camps set up by migrants trying to enter the US.
The new influx is largely due to instability and rising COVID-19 infection rates in Central American countries, as well as perceptions of a shift in immigration rules under the Biden administration, according to US Customs and Border Protection.
Last week, Border Patrol agents reported that 350 children a day entered the US without their parents – more than quadrupling the number from last fall, according to reports.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency dedicated to the housing of unaccompanied minors, said they process an average of 337 children per day. In January, the agency’s shelters saw more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors arrive in the US, a 19 percent increase since December, according to the CBS report. That figure is the highest the agency recorded in February. In February 2019, the agency registered almost 5,900 minors, according to Statistics Netherlands.
Unaccompanied children must be handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours. There are currently 7,700 unaccompanied minors in the care of HHS, which opened an overflow shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas earlier this year for children between the ages of 13 and 17. According to a Pentagon spokesperson, the agency is also conducting a site survey at a military barracks in Fort Lee, Virginia to find other temporary housing.
In the past, overflow facilities have operated under limited capacity due to the coronavirus, but on Friday, Biden’s government informed HHS that they could reopen facilities to pre-pandemic levels, an indication that the rise is likely to increase, according to a CNN. report last week.