La administración de Biden planea abrir otra instalación en Del Rio, Texas, expandir la capacidad de procesamiento para niños y familias que llegan a la frontera México-Estados Unidos, a Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to CNN.
It’s the latest move by the administration to address the growing number of migrant families and unaccompanied children at the US southern border. Earlier this month, US Customs and Border Protection also Anunciado the opening of a “de lados blandos” estructura en Donna, Texas, to help with intake.
En Enero, más que 5,800 unaccompanied children and nearly 7,500 families were taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection at the US-Mexico border, según los datos mensuales más recientes de la agencia. And numbers are expected to continue to rise.
El jueves, Brian Hastings, the Border Patrol sector chief in Rio Grande Valley, tuiteó about the volume of migrants approaching the border. “In less than a 24 hour period, this area alone saw more than 500 illegal entries,” he said in a tweet, adding that the majority were families and accompanied children.
Border officials are taking more than 300 unaccompanied children into custody daily at the border on average, according to another Homeland Security official.
The expected facility in Del Rio, first reported by The Washington Post, is separate from the shelters intended for children who arrive alone at the border. Those shelters are operated by the Health and Human Services Department and designed to care for migrant children until they’re placed with sponsors, como padres o parientes, en los EE.UU.
CNN has reached out to Customs and Border Protection for comment.
El año pasado, as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the US, the Trump administration invoked a public health law allowing border officials to turn away migrants apprehended at the border, including children, resulting in a low number of unaccompanied children and families being admitted to the US.
A federal judge eventually blocked the administration from subjecting unaccompanied children to the policy, but that ruling was later reversed by a federal appeals court. The Biden administration, sin embargo, has said it will not expel children, though the policy still applies to single adults and some families.
