texas border patrol migrants Biden
© ReutersU.S. Border Patrol agents keep watch on a large group of migrants near the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.
Customs and Border Protection authorities are reportedly set to release migrants who crossed into the country illegally into the United States without a court date.

The move, which would focus on illegal immigrants in Texas's Rio Grande Valley, would send individuals into U.S. cities without first obtaining a Notice to Appear, according to Fox News, which cited a senior CBP source. The onus on securing a court date would fall on the migrants themselves, and the situation has purportedly "become so dire that BP [Border Patrol] has no choice but to release people nearly immediately after apprehension because there is no space to hold people even to do necessary NTA paperwork," the official said.

The Rio Grande Valley is grappling with a surge in immigration and its facilities are at 700% capacity as migrants have flooded the U.S.-Mexico border since President Biden assumed office in mid-January.

CBP did not immediately return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.

The reported move follows data from CBP authorities that the agency witnessed upward of 100,000 attempted illegal border crossings in February, compared to 78,000 who tried to do the same in January. Drug seizures were up 50%, and the Biden administration is projected to face an unprecedented influx of 117,000 unaccompanied migrant children by the conclusion of the year.

On Saturday, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement announced the activation of a child migrant facility in Pecos, Texas, to combat the surge, a spokesperson said in a release obtained by the Washington Examiner. It is set to house at least 500 solo minors, but that number may balloon to 2,000 in the coming months.

A similar facility is set to be created in a convention center in Dallas, Texas, housing a total of 3,000 unaccompanied boys between the age of 15 and 17.

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration will "not abandon" its "values" and "principles" to take a more humanitarian approach to the U.S.-Mexico border situation, even as the top official admitted the surge is highest in two decades in earlier statements.

"We will not abandon our values and our principles," he said during a segment of CNN's State of the Union. "We will not abandon the needs of vulnerable children, that is what this is all about. We are executing on our plan, it does take time. It is difficult. Our plan includes the deployment of the Federal Emergency Management Administration to assist HHS in building its capacity more rapidly to shelter the children, but it is taking time, and it is difficult because the entire system was dismantled by the prior administration."

Biden has faced mounting criticism after it was found that upward of 4,200 migrant children found themselves in short-term holding facilities designed for adults, 3,000 of which have been held past the legal detention limit of 72 hours.

Some of the solo minors have been detained in jail-like concrete rooms without beds, dubbed "hieleras," or iceboxes.

Earlier this month, Biden administration officials said migrant children are under U.S. care for an average of 37 days, admitting that they are unable to keep up with the skyrocketing demand.

"We are not in a place where we're going to be able to meet the demand that we are seeing," a Biden administration official said. "Every day, we are bringing new beds online, but it takes a lot of time, unfortunately, in terms of our licensed care-provider network. We are aggressively adding hundreds of beds by the week to our care-provider network."
Jake Dima is a Breaking News Reporter for the Washington Examiner. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.