NEW: In early Dec., Biden transition officials began sounding alarm on need to increase shelter space for migrant children, but Trump admin. didn't take action until days before inauguration, according to two Biden transition officials and a US official. nbcnews.to/3lUZ6Ve
"They were sitting on their hands," one of the transition officials tells @NBCNews, who does not currently work for the Biden admin. and spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It was incredibly frustrating."
It was not until Jan. 15 that former HHS Sec. Azar issued the Request for Assistance, which started the multi-week process of surveying and choosing new sites.
As of February, HHS was only able to use about half of its congressionally funded capacity because of Covid-19 protocols and a shuttering of facilities under the Trump admin.
Because of HHS's extremely limited capacity, unaccompanied children are now backlogged in overcrowded Border Patrol stations, reaching a record high of 5,200 children in custody last week, with hundreds held past the 3-day legal limit.
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