US government officials are scrambling to find a bed space for some 15,500 unaccounted immigrant children who occupy the southern border in record numbers.
US Customs and Border Protection officials reported on Saturday that more than 5,000 minor immigrants are being held at the Mexican border, including a make-shift tent facility in southern Texas. CBS News reported.
About 10,500 others are being sheltered in emergency shelters by the Department of Health and Department of Human Services.
The border crisis comes as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Sunday that unaccompanied minors would not be overcome.
But border officials are being overwhelmed by the numbers – last month, more than 9,400 children crossed the border illegally in February records, and the number is expected to rise again this month when more than 500 migrant minors are crossing daily Huh.
Neha Desai, a CBP lawyer, said, “The number of children in CBP custody is both very small and profound.”
Desai said he credited the Biden administration for its commitment to “addressing the humanitarian situation” at the border.
But, he said, “time will tell if the government’s good intentions and hard work will translate into changes that are urgently needed.”
Children, who enter the US without their parents or any other adult, are now spending an average of 136 hours patrolling the border before going to Heath and Human Services.
The amount of time allowed under US law is 72 hours.
HHS has been forced to open emergency makeshift facilities, including one in Pecos, Texas that was initially expected to accommodate 500 children.
CBS said the facility, once home-based, could be used for oil workers, out of which the number of children could be increased to 2,000.
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