What Is Happening With Migrant Children at the Southern Border?

by Causes | 3.16.21

What's the story?

• More than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children are in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody at the U.S.-Mexico border.
• As of March 14, CBP agents were housing 4,200 children in detention centers.
• If these trends continue - and they are expected to - the U.S. will face a 20-year high in the number of migrants arriving at the southern border.

• Department of Homeland Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas said these centers - which are often compared to warehouses or jails - are "no place for a child."
• Over the weekend, Mayorkas directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to aid with receiving, sheltering, and transferring children.

"Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS as quickly as possible, consistent with legal requirements and in the best interest of the children," Mayorkas said.

• The Biden administration is scrambling to find more government buildings for the children.
• "Obviously we're going to have more kids," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a briefing, noting that the influx is because Biden is "letting unaccompanied minors stay, and the last administration immorally kicked them out."

"So, of course, we have to look for facilities and places where we can safely and humanely have these unaccompanied minors in the interim."

-Josh Herman