More than 14,000 children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent are in federal custody waiting to be released to adults within the United States, according to Biden administration officials.
Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security agency that oversees Border Patrol, said Thursday afternoon that it has 4,500 children under the age of 18 being detained at its holding facilities up and down the 2,000-mile southern border. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement has 9,562 children in its care as of Wednesday, two administration officials told reporters in a call Thursday.
“There’s no question that the current flows have created challenges for DHS and HHS,” an official said.
The last major surge of single children occurred in 2018 and into 2019. At the highest point, HHS had 14,226 children in its care in December 2018, according to federal data. The Border Patrol has not historically published data on children in custody.
Border Patrol’s 4,500 figure is up from 3,200 in custody last week and is expected to continue rising as more children continue walking or swimming over the international boundary. Children encountered by Border Patrol agents are taken into custody, booked into the system, and looked over by medical officials, then transferred to HHS facilities, ideally within three days.
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Border officials anticipate that 117,000 children will arrive in 2021. The number is higher than the 68,000 taken into custody during the 2014 surge of solo children and the 80,000 who arrived during the 2019 humanitarian crisis at the border.
The uptick follows the Biden administration’s decision in January to stop returning unaccompanied children to Mexico, as was the policy in the final 10 months of the Trump administration. Children were sent back to their home countries to avoid filling government immigration facilities with people during the coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the influx of children and insufficient number of facilities and means of transportation, Border Patrol stations are overcrowded and holding children days longer than they are supposed to. HHS has opened several overflow facilities in Carrizo Springs, Texas; Midland, Texas; and the convention center in Dallas. Border Patrol debuted several massive tents in the South Texas city of Donna, where a large processing center that it used to hold families, children, and adults during the Trump administration is being renovated to remove fenced-in rooms that critics compared to “cages.” That center was originally erected by the Obama administration.
Liberal Democrats are upset that the Biden administration is choosing to open overflow facilities to house children who show up on the U.S.-Mexico border without a guardian or parent, but aside from releasing children by themselves into the U.S., there are few alternatives. Legally, the U.S. government has the ability to expel out of the country anyone it encounters illegally entering the country during the pandemic, which it has continued to do with some families and all adults.
“We’re working closely with CBP so that we can start connecting with a family member or a sponsor of the child, even before that child enters our care so we’re not waiting for them to arrive in one of our facilities to start making contact with a family member or sponsor. We’re doing that as soon as possible,” said a second administration official.
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The southern border spans approximately 2,000 miles and includes Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
