I've been out on vacation for a few days so haven't posted this daily chart, but now that I'm back, time to talk about a not-so-good week the Biden administration is having.
After two straight weeks of progress, the number of kids in custody has unexpectedly hit a plateau.
One of the reasons this week hasn't seen a plateau is that there are a few hundred more unaccompanied children coming to the border this week compared to last week. But that could easily be normal variance and the trendline is still good.
The real concern is releases from ORR custody to sponsors. Last week was the first week since the Biden administration began reporting daily numbers that we saw the average number of children released to sponsors go *down.* And this week is on track for another drop!
The combination of falling numbers of releases to sponsors and (as of this week) a small increase in unaccompanied children coming to the border means that the trendline on net changes in children in custody has been going in the wrong direction for a few days.
All of this could easily be a few day speed bump and we could see numbers start going back down again within the next week or so.
This isn't the first time we've seen a speed bump in this process either. So this could easily be normal variance.
This week shows that the Biden administration's response to unaccompanied children is still quite fragile. Lots of successes but we're not out of the woods.
To end this thread with some good news, we're about to drop below 20,000 kids in custody for the first time since April 6.
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