Approximately 4,000 children who arrived at the southern border without a parent into custody were reported as being held in federal custody the first two weeks of February, according to federal data obtained by the Washington Examiner Friday.
Department of Homeland Security documents revealed that 2,014 unaccompanied migrant children were transferred out of Border Patrol custody and to Health and Human Services just between Feb. 7 and Feb. 14. Of those children, 88 were held by Border Patrol for three to five days, longer than the three-day cap, indicating the alarming strain on border officials.
From Jan. 31 through Feb. 6, 1,882 children in Border Patrol custody were transferred to HHS. Just four were held longer than three days.
More families were also transferred out of Border Patrol care in the second week of February than in the first, an indication that agents are apprehending more people. Exactly 1,449 migrants who arrived with a family member were released or transferred in the first week of February, compared to 1,812 the second week.
In each of those weeks, 75 people were held at the agency’s stations for more than five days.
The situation is expected to deteriorate. Federal agents anticipate seeing 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children arrive on the U.S.-Mexico border in May, which is more than any month during the 2019 humanitarian crisis. Border Patrol encountered 5,900 children who showed up at the southern border in January without a parent or guardian, less than half of the number of children it believes is coming. In comparison, in May 2019, federal agents took more than 11,400 solo children into custody.
U.S. BORDER EXPECTED TO SEE 13,000 UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN IN MAY, WORSE THAN 2019 CRISIS
The agency is already struggling to hold minors in its custody because its holding stations are not suited for children and coronavirus restrictions make it difficult to detain people safely.
Legally, the U.S. government has the ability to send all unaccompanied children back to Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic, which it has continued to do with adults. However, after taking office in January, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed border officials not to send any single child south of the border, choosing instead to stick along the lines of a 2007 trafficking law that protected most single children from being deported.
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Mayorkas’s decision prevents children from automatically being sent back to Mexico, but it means children must be taken into custody and held by the government for a short period. Immigrant advocates are concerned about the government’s ability to care for children properly. Once children are transferred to HHS’s childcare facilities, they are to be held no more than 20 days, then released to a family member or sponsor in the United States.
