Children reportedly backlogged as migrant holding capacity over 300% in RGV
More children are coming to the border alone and staying in U.S. Border Patrol detention longer than the 72-hour limit. While federal officials declined to share details of the time children are spending in detention, information shared with The Monitor shows critically overburdened holding facilities with few options of relief in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Time in custody numbers is law enforcement sensitive. I’m not going to discuss the specific numbers of how long the children are in custody,” Troy Miller, who’s the senior official performing the duties of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said Wednesday during a media call.
Over the last 10 days, agents in the Valley encountered an average of 250 children traveling into the U.S. alone per day, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Children who enter alone must then be moved to a federal shelter under the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. Yet, out of an average of 250 children detained each day last week, the ORR took an average of 20 children a day from Border Patrol’s custody in the Valley.
Read more: https://myrgv.com/featured/2021/03/10/children-reportedly-backlogged-as-migrant-holding-capacity-over-300-in-rgv/
(McAllen Monitor)
President Biden has many critical issues to address and he is taking some steps to fix immigration policy. I hope that he keeps his eye on making these holding facilities transparent regarding inspections and his overall immigration policy or this will become a problem for Democrats in the mid-terms.
