The Biden administration is preparing to house migrants arrested after illegally crossing the southern border in outdoor tents, a move not seen since the 2019 humanitarian crisis during the Trump administration.
Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that oversees the Border Patrol, signed a lease with city officials in Donna, Texas, on Jan. 15 approving the construction of a 160,000-square-foot space that includes two “soft-sided facilities.” The project is slated to be completed 30 days from Jan. 19, border officials told Border Report.
The white tents will be used to process people, including adults and children, who have just been apprehended crossing from Mexico into the United States in an area that is not at a port of entry, where pedestrians and vehicles are supposed to be inspected before entering the country.
The massive structures will have cooling systems inside and are able to withstand harsh weather conditions, according to CBP. They include a variety of sizes of rooms, including a dining hall, bathrooms, sleeping quarters, and a security room.
The tent is temporary and replaces a permanent facility that is being renovated. Normally, illegal immigrants are brought to the Central Processing Center in nearby McAllen, Texas, to be interviewed by agents. CBP guidelines mandate no person be held more than 72 hours before being transferred for longer-term detention at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, released into the U.S., or returned to Mexico.
Well over 1,000 baby diapers cover four-tier shelves in one room, an indication of the Border Patrol’s expectation that many families will pass through here in the weeks and months to come.
Up until last week, most illegal immigrants could be immediately returned to Mexico without having to be detained. However, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley were barred last week from returning families with children 12 years old and younger to Mexico. Unable to send families back, Border Patrol began releasing families out of the back doors of stations, according to Mark Morgan, the former acting CBP commissioner.
The backdoor releases are the result of a change in Mexican law that prohibits children and families from being detained in Mexican detention facilities. In response, Mexican authorities immediately told Border Patrol to stop removing families in South Texas, the busiest spot along the 1,950-mile international boundary.
It is the first time that Border Patrol has been forced to detain a sizable demographic, families, since last March, when it implemented an initiative known as Title 42, which allowed its agents to send back all illegal crossers on the basis that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ruled that U.S. facilities could not safely hold people.
The Biden administration does not yet have a solution when it comes to responding to a large influx of people on the border, even though it opposes the widespread use of detention, especially on families or children. It recently announced that it would no longer force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for months while their cases progress through the U.S. legal system.
People in Border Patrol custody are not to be held more than 72 hours. Normally, most are transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for longer detention, but because ICE is underfunded and courts have blocked some facilities from detaining more than a certain number of people, many would have to be released across the country.
The creation of the soft-sided facilities in South Texas is in addition to the Department of Health and Human Services standing up an overflow tent facility for unaccompanied children, which is where they are transferred from Border Patrol custody. The new solo child site run by HHS is located in Carrizo Springs, Texas, roughly 250 miles northwest of the DHS border facility in Donna. Children under the age of 18 who arrived at the southern border without a parent or guardian are to be transferred from Border Patrol to HHS’s Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The new temporary facility can hold 700 children at present and can be expanded, according to CNN. As of Feb. 3, approximately 4,700 unaccompanied migrant children were in HHS’s care. It will be open and accepting transfers from Border Patrol two weeks by Feb. 24, HHS told Border Report. Only children from 14 to 17 years old will be admitted and must pass a coronavirus test beforehand. Teenagers are not to be held more than one month while HHS looks for a suitable family member or family friend to release each person to.
The number of children showing up at the southern border has increased since April, prompting federal agencies to expand holding facilities because existing ones are unable to hold normal levels of people due to the health risks.
