In recent days we've been covering the record-high number of unaccompanied migrant children stuck in Border Patrol custody; the overcrowding they are facing; and the scramble to find shelter beds.

I wanted to share some reporting on the policy some see as the solution. A thread:
Some argue that the Biden admin. should expel unaccompanied migrant children under a Trump-era pandemic policy authorized by the CDC that is currently being used to expel most migrant adults and some families.

Three federal judges have said that practice is likely illegal.

2/
Between March and November 2020, the Trump admin. expelled 15,000 + unaccompanied children without allowing them to request US refuge until a federal judge blocked the policy.

An appeals court lifted that order in January, but the Biden admin. declined to revive the policy. 3/
The Trump admin. invoked a 19th century public health authority to suspend the safeguards Congress created to protect migrant children from trafficking and persecution.

10-year-old Jesús was expelled to Honduras alone while his mother was in Mexico. 4/
cbsnews.com/news/coronavir…
The U.S. granted Magdalena, a former police officer in El Salvador, legal refuge from gangs.

But her 13-year-old daughter was expelled alone under the Trump-era pandemic policy after asking for protection at the U.S.-Mexico border. 5/
cbsnews.com/news/13-year-o…
15-year-old Marjory came to the U.S. border in November fleeing sexual abuse and hoping to reunite with her father in Pennsylvania.

But she was not allowed to seek U.S. protection and was expelled to Guatemala. 6/
cbsnews.com/news/ice-expel…
We also reported that CDC officials were pressured by the Trump White House to approve the expulsions policy, which a former CDC official called a "misappropriation" of public health law.

"We were forced to do it," another former CDC official told me. 7/
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
Gustavo, a largely non-verbal 12-year-old boy with physical and learning disabilities, was expelled to Guatemala alone, after his asylum-seeking mother in Mexico, citing desperation, allowed him to present himself to U.S. border officials. 8/
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
Hopefully these stories, which did not receive the same attention as ones about minors in border custody, offer some insight into what some see as the alternative to sheltering unaccompanied migrant children and allowing them seek US refuge — both obligations under US law.

end/

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More from @camiloreports

20 Mar
BREAKING — The number of unaccompanied migrant children in US custody has surpassed 15,000, per data reviewed by @CBSNews.

5,000 are stranded in Border Patrol facilities, where the average detention time has increased to 136 hours, beyond the 3-day limit.
cbsnews.com/news/migrant-c…
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also housing nearly 10,500 unaccompanied children in emergency housing facilities and shelters.

HHS is opening a fourth emergency / influx facility at another housing facility for oil workers in Pecos, Texas.
9,400 unaccompanied minors entered US border custody last month.

That number is expected to be eclipsed by the figure for March, as border officials have encountered an average of more than 500 unaccompanied minors per day in the past 21 days, per the data reviewed by CBS News.
Read 9 tweets
18 Mar
NEW — Roughly 4,500 unaccompanied migrant children are stuck in short-term CBP holding facilities along the southern border today, per a Biden administration official.

The figure shows the backlog of migrant children in Border Patrol custody has only increased since Sunday.
The Biden administration continues to struggle to reduce the record-high backlog of minors in Border Patrol facilities, most of which are unfit to house them.

CBS News reported that Border Patrol was holding 4,200 unaccompanied minors on Sunday:
cbsnews.com/news/immigrati…
The number of unaccompanied migrant children housed by the U.S. refugee office within HHS has also increased.

As of yesterday, more than 9,500 unaccompanied children were being housed in shelters and emergency housing facilities overseen by the refugee agency.
Read 4 tweets
13 Mar
BREAKING — A "staggering number" of migrant children held at a Border Patrol facility face overcrowded conditions, lawyers who interviewed them tell CBS News.

Children reported sleeping on the floor; limited showers; and not seeing the sun in days.
cbsnews.com/news/migrant-c…
"Some of the boys said that conditions were so overcrowded that they had to take turns sleeping on the floor," @NCYLnews's Neha Desai said, citing interviews with nearly a dozen migrant children held at the Customs and Border Protection holding facility in Donna, Texas.
The children interviewed included a young teenager in U.S. custody with her baby and an 8-year-old unaccompanied girl. Some of the children who traveled with older siblings were even younger.

"There was a staggering amount of very young children," Desai said.
Read 11 tweets
12 Mar
The Department of Health and Human Services has reactivated more than 200 beds for migrant children since the CDC allowed shelters to return to pre-pandemic capacity, a Biden admin. official told reporters.

No decisions have yet been made on opening additional influx facilities.
DHS and HHS are also rescinding a 2018 Trump-era agreement that allowed certain information on prospective sponsors of unaccompanied children to be shared with ICE.

Officials said the termination is designed to ensure “family members or sponsors can come forward without fear."
“There will not be any immigration enforcement consequences for a family member or a sponsor who comes forward to be united with an unaccompanied child in our care," one official said on the call with reporters.

The official said the 2018 agreement created a “chilling effect."
Read 4 tweets
10 Mar
New — The number of migrant families and children taken into US border custody continued to increase in February, creating a major logistical and humanitarian test for Pres. Biden.

19,000 parents and children + 9,500 unaccompanied minors entered custody.
cbsnews.com/news/migrant-c…
The vast majority of the 71,000 migrant adults taken into custody were expelled under a public health authority invoked by the Trump admin.

~60% of parents and children were processed under U.S. immigration law. The Biden administration is not expelling unaccompanied minors.
The upward trend of unaccompanied children arriving at the border has not ceased in March.

During the first nine days of the month, more than 3,500 unaccompanied minors entered U.S. custody, according to preliminary government data reviewed by @CBSNews.
Read 6 tweets
9 Mar
Important details that did not make it into our story:

The US refugee office is releasing hundreds of migrant children to sponsors per week and its discharge rate continues to increase — but the number of minors being taken into custody is higher, and growing exponentially. 1/
The HHS documents we obtained show the weekly average of releases of migrant children increased from 99 in early January to 149 in late February.

But during the same time period, the weekly referral average (children entering custody) increased from 66 to 337. 2/
Between Jan 28 and Feb 24, the refugee office released 3,284 children to approved sponsors (typically family members in the US).

But that did not make a dent in the in-custody population due to the record high number of children referred in February end/
cbsnews.com/news/migrant-c…
Read 4 tweets

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