Biden administration rushes to open emergency sites for record number of migrant children
Over the last few weeks, the Biden administration has been working to rapidly convert several sites throughout the Southwest, including convention centers and military bases, into large-scale emergency facilities capable of housing the record-setting number of unaccompanied migrant children seeking refuge in the U.S.
Dubbed Emergency Intake Sites, the additional facilities come in response to the difficult challenges the new administration has faced in dealing with the latest surge in unaccompanied migrant children, most of them from Central America, arriving at the border amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the latest data, released Thursday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, authorities encountered 18,890 unaccompanied children along the southwest border during March — a 100 percent increase from February.
The new intake sites, which are run by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, are intended to reduce the amount of time children are forced to spend in CBP custody at the border, where insufficient space at existing facilities designed for migrant children has led to prolonged detention in overcrowded conditions. As of Wednesday, there were 4,228 unaccompanied minors in CBP custody, according to data provided by the federal government.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/biden-administration-rushes-to-open-emergency-sites-for-record-number-of-migrant-children/ar-BB1frXrN?li=BBnb7Kz
