A pair of bipartisan senators called for better media access to government facilities holding the growing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the US-Mexico border, as they described overcrowded conditions for minors who are held for days more than the law.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, one of four senators who accompanied Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the border, said in an interview with The Washington Post Saturday that up to 100 migrant children were being held in a large room at a Customs and Border Protection processing center in El Paso, Texas, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 200 border agents were diverted to this CBP facility to deal with the children, Ms. Capito said.
The children, who arrived at the southern border without a parent, are legally allowed to be held for only 72 hours in CBP custody before being transferred elsewhere. But many are there for days longer than that, she added.
‘I am very alarmed by the numbers and extremely concerned about the extended stay at the facility,’ said Ms Capito, who called the circumstances ‘heartbreaking’.
“They will move 50 a night [and] bring in another 100 people that night,” she said.
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Senator Chris Murphy, who also made the trip, said it was “not about children in so-called cages”.
But, he added, these are not facilities that anyone “wants your child to stay in for more than 10 minutes.”
“You sleep on thin mattresses on the floor. They’re kind of huddled together, you know, about six inches a foot apart,” Murphy said on NPR on Saturday. “We ultimately have to do better.”
On Twitter, Mr Murphy added: “The desperation these children and families are fleeing is hard to describe. The memory of this 13 year old girl will stay with me forever. As long as conditions are terrible in the southern regions, people will find a way to get here, no matter how high the wall is or how many border agents there are.
The bipartisan delegation that traveled with Mayorkas to El Paso on Friday is likely to heighten scrutiny of the Biden administration, which is struggling to manage the growing influx of children at the border that overwhelms the US immigration system. .
Unaccompanied children and adolescents in CBP custody must be transferred to Health and Human Services Care within three days, although minors who come now are detained for days longer than that.
Attention also shifts to a time when Capitol Hill is focusing on immigration policy, with the House passing legislation earlier this week that would provide legal status to young undocumented immigrants and farm workers already in the United States.
The House will consider other related bills in the coming weeks as Democratic leaders begin to rally support for President Joe Biden’s comprehensive immigration proposal.
But congressional energy may soon be diverted to ensuring the Biden administration has adequate resources to handle challenges at the border. Mr. Murphy and Ms. Capito are the top Democrats and Republicans overseeing funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the Senate.
The White House has repeatedly referred DHS when pressed to access border facilities for journalists. But Capito said she confirmed with Mayorkas that reporters should be allowed to see them.
“I begged him to be as transparent with us… but also with the press,” Ms Capito said.
Mr. Murphy added on NPR that he believes DHS could allow “additional access to the press” while ensuring that young children’s identities are protected. “We want to make sure the press has access to hold the administration accountable,” he said.
Mr. Mayorkas and the senators visited a CBP processing center and CHS Trail House, a facility contracted by Health and Human Services to house unaccompanied migrant children once they leave CBP custody.
The centers themselves were in good condition, Ms Capito said, noting that snacks, water and hygienic facilities such as showers were readily available.
Yet public health issues remain a major concern.
Once children are in the care of HHS, they are quarantined and tested for the coronavirus. Senators were told by officials that the positivity rate for migrant children at CHS Trail House was in the double digits, and two officials familiar with the briefing said 35 of more than 200 children had tested positive.
The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to release the figures given to senators, said the positivity rate was for this facility only, not all admission sites. As of March 3, according to court records, there were a total of 241 minors in HHS custody who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and had been placed in medical isolation. More than 1,000 unaccompanied minors sent to HHS have tested positive for the coronavirus since the outbreak began, but most have since been released.
HHS said Saturday authorities would activate Target Lodge Pecos North in Texas as an influx facility to handle the influx of unaccompanied minors, with space for 500 people to begin with, with potential to expand to 2 000. Officials said they preferred to house miners in “hard-sided structures” but could use tent-like facilities if necessary.
Ms Capito argued that steps taken by the Biden administration to unravel some Trump-era immigration efforts, such as the “stay in Mexico” policy that forced asylum seekers to wait for their hearings in front of a court outside US soil, had contributed to the recent spike and warned that the numbers would climb even further if the president dropped other existing immigration policies.
One of these measures would be the so-called “Title 42” public health directive issued by Donald Trump which quickly deported migrants arriving at the border in an effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Although the Biden administration kept the order in place, it stopped doing so for unaccompanied children.
“You are looking for deterrence; you’re looking for a reason to say we don’t have a porous border here,” Ms Capito said.
Mr Murphy pointed to the previous administration’s systematic dismantling of the US asylum system as one of the main reasons behind the surge – citing, for example, Trump’s suspension of the Central American Minors program.
This Obama-era initiative allowed children whose parents were already in the United States to seek asylum in their home country to deter minors from undertaking a risky and dangerous journey through Mexico and to seek refuge at the southern border of the United States.
The Biden administration has said it is reinstating that program.
The Washington Post
