According to preliminary statistics obtained by CNN, the United States Customs and Border Protection encountered around 171700 migrants in March, including a huge number of unaccompanied children, far surpassing February’s overall number and continuing a mounting trend dating back to the previous year.
Migration surged at US-Mexico border in March, data shows Authorities caught more than 171,000 migrants trying to enter the US last month, the most in at least 15 years.
— Deji Sadiq (@deji_of_lagos) April 3, 2021
The statistics highlight the ongoing challenge that the Biden government is facing as officials climb to set up emergency places to accommodate migrant children, several of them held in bad conditions. Whereas according to the initial data, in March, CBP encountered around eighteen thousand and eight hundred unaccompanied minors at the border, almost doubling the number of apprehensions of children in the prior month and setting a record high.
Two years back in May 2019, the highest month of the arrests during that year’s crisis, the American Customs and Border Protection arrested around 11,861 unaccompanied children at the southern American border. On the other side, single adults still make up the majority of border apprehensions, with almost ninety-nine thousand and three hundred encountered in March, the initial statistics reveal, up from 71,598 in February.
Single adults are mainly turned away at the southern American border as early as they met under a public health order, and consequently, the number might also account for repeat crossers. Further migrant families are also arriving at the border. Moreover, border officials encountered about 53,500 families in March, more from 19,246 in February. The authorities quickly expelled Some families, where they released others in the United States as a result of limited capacity in Mexico.
Efforts to Care for Minors
Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, the White House’s coordinator of the southern border, acknowledged the mounting number of arrivals this week, and she hoped for the decline eventually. The faster arrivals overwhelmed border facilities of the U.S. as the administrators’ race to transfer children under the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which charged with the migrant children’s care.
Read Also: Immigration policy may drove migrants surge – Roberta Jacobson
The government released the data on Thursday, and it specifies some extent of progress, as the children’s numbers in Border Patrol facilities, similar to jail-like conditions, slowly decline. That data shows, as of Wednesday, there were around 4,966 children in the custody of CBP and 13204 under the custody of HHS. Additionally, the officials transferred over eight hundred children out of CBP custody. One day before, there had almost 12918 children in HHS custody and around 5285 children in CBP custody.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) opened and announced over recent days several sites designed to house unaccompanied migrant children, while case managers help move them with a sponsor, such as a parent or relative, in the United States. In addition, HHS announced on Wednesday that it would open its tenth temporary migrant housing facility for unaccompanied children at a site in Houston.
Source: Web
Deployed Staff to Initiate the Process of Reuniting Unaccompanied Children with Family
Furthermore, a federal agency under HHS, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), opened deployed staff to start the process of uniting unaccompanied migrant children with family members in America. The agency also stated that by going to the border, ORR could start the unification process even before a child referred to the care unit of ORR, thus reducing some hours, if not days, off of the time it takes to determine and unify a child with their family or a suitable sponsor such as relative.
