© Ed JONES / AFPMarch 27, 2021 two unaccompanied seven year-old child immigrants who arrived illegally across the Rio Grande river from Mexico stand at a makeshift processing checkpoint before being detained at a holding facility by border patrol agents in the border city of Roma.
The number of migrant children being held in Border Patrol facilities is more than double the record that was set in June 2019 during the Trump administration, the
Washington Examiner has learned.
As of Sunday, 5,767 unaccompanied minors were being detained inside cells at Border Patrol facilities near the U.S.-Mexico border. In comparison, only 2,600 children were documented in custody at the height of the 2019 border crisis, according to federal data exclusively obtained Monday evening.
The figures underscore the magnitude of the situation on the border, which President Joe Biden and Democrats have refused to recognize as a "crisis." The number of children in Border Patrol facilities is also far higher than the number of children separated from their parents under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" initiative that mandated children be taken from their parents so that the adults could be prosecuted. In other words,
Biden is presiding over more unaccompanied children in government custody than when Trump intentionally separated migrant children from their families. Federal data for the end of Trump's tenure were not available.
Although it has not labeled the border situation a crisis, the Biden administration has redirected personnel from other Homeland Security agencies around the country to Texas, where more children are coming over the border with each passing day.
Each week, sometimes more than once a week, new overflow facilities are opened to hold the influx of children. Border Patrol is packing children into tents and rooms, images shared by lawmakers this month revealed, as it waits for facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services to open up bed space. HHS will hold children until it can find sponsors in the United States to whom they can be released. They will live in the country and face immigration proceedings, likely not until years down the road.
The number of migrant children in HHS facilities, as opposed to Border Patrol ones, peaked in December 2018 at 14,226. As of Sunday, the department hit 11,886.
Combining HHS and Border Patrol figures, the Biden administration has more than 17,500 children in custody, more than the largest two respective figures from the Trump peaks in 2018 and 2019.The administration has blamed the emergency on Trump policies. "We are digging out of a broken system over the past four years โ not just the inhumane policies, but the fact that there were never efforts put in place to look for and seek shelters where these children could be safely and humanely housed," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
Children are supposed to be taken into custody if they show up alone and cross the international boundary. U.S. law forbids the immediate deportation of single children on the basis that they may be victims of human trafficking. Children from Canada and Mexico are exempt.
Last March, the Trump administration opted not to take any adult or child into custody over concerns that a coronavirus outbreak inside the small rooms would spread quickly
and instead returned people south of the border or to their home countries. Biden opted in January to stop returning the thousands of Central American children showing up each month. The trouble for Biden is that since then, the number of children coming to the U.S. has surged and is expected to continue rising for months. Rep. Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat,
called on the administration to send back teenagers, but the government has not budged. More than 117,000 children are expected to show up alone at the southern border.
Anna Giaritelli is the Homeland Security Reporter for the Washington Examiner
Comment: Hannity reports on footage
released by a
Forbes reporter about Border Patrol rapid processing centers:
A reporter from Forbes Magazine published stunning new footage from the US-Mexico border this week; showing migrants, children, and adults walking into the United States and being released into Texas "within hours."
"I'm at the Texas-Mexico border. This is one of the underground processing areas that has been setup under a bridge. This is where families are actually coming and unaccompanied minors will just show-up here during the night," said journalist James Langford.
"They go through a basic screening. If they have a child that's six or younger then all these folks will be released into Texas within a couple hours," he added. "All these folks will be released into the United States with a 'Notice to Appear' at court. Some of those hearings are three years later."
Gateway Pundit
reports on a brazen industrial-scale smuggling operation. The coyote in this particular run was caught, but not all the illegals:
In the video, what appears to be 100 illegal aliens are being unloaded in the small Texas town 100 miles from the Mexican border. Pearsall had a population of 9,240 up until this semi-trailer was unloaded. The small city prides itself on being safe.
This is insane and unAmerican - the Instagram post reads:
latinoswithtrump
๐They're still coming ๐PEARSALL, Texas โ Video sent to KENS 5 NEWS shows dozens of migrants pouring out of a trailer in Frio County. The Frio County Sheriff's Office told KENS 5 the incident caught on video took place around noon Monday in Pearsall, near the intersection of Oak and Nueces streets.
According to the Pearsall Police Department, a person driving behind the truck saw arms and then someone's head sticking outside of the truck's small door. That witness called police.
Authorities said the driver fled along with the migrants and tried to blend in with group once authorities got there, but they were able to identify him as the driver and arrest him. They described the migrants as dehydrated and "soaked in sweat."
In total, 65 migrants were apprehended. The driver of the truck was arrested and placed in federal custody; it is unclear what charges the driver will face at this time. Authorities did not elaborate on the whereabouts of the migrants.
Pearsall PD said they were getting 911 calls from local residents saying they were spotting migrants running through their yards well into the night.
This comes as Republican lawmakers blame the Biden administration's border policy for a surge in migrants at the Texas-Mexico border. In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott demanded answers to what he called a "humanitarian crisis at the southern border."
Officials in south Texas also say they're observing an increase in human-smuggling operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, which they say endangers those being transported.
This is a catastrophic disaster. Joe Biden told them to come and now they're coming by the truck Load, literally.
Call @governorabbott@govabbott Governor of Texas and demand he deploy additional resources to the border to stop the invasion. (512) 463-2000
Smugglers are not particular about how they go about their activities. Border Patrol is woefully understaffed and underfunded to deal with these situations. The children were fortunate to be rescued:
Biden's administration was given clear, repeated
warnings about the consequences of their changes to Trump's policies:
Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) said Tuesday that the Biden administration was warned by Border Patrol officials about a large surge of illegal immigrants if Trump-era immigration policies were dismantled.
....
Van Duyne said that there are Customs and Border Protection officials "who are at the end of their rope" in dealing with the surge.
"They're doing what they can but they're also very frustrated, realizing that they had actually warned this administration what would happen if they decided to push back on policies that were put in place by the previous administration that were working," she told Fox News.
She added that Border Patrol officials under Trump "were keeping children with their families. They were keeping people over the border. They were keeping them in the first safe country that they came to and what we're seeing is a massive surge now at the borders and the response from the administration, instead of actually reversing policies that have caused this surge.
The Biden administration said that it was Trump's migration policies that triggered the surge, while President Joe Biden during a news conference last week suggested that the number of people crossing the border is routine and occurs every year.
Some NGO groups who spoke to the Wall Street Journal also suggested that the messaging from the administration is encouraging women and children to try and illegally migrate to the United States.
"It's great that the U.S. is welcoming women and children," Pastor Abraham Barberi told the paper at a shelter in Matamoros, Mexico. "But they're also sending the message to families: 'Let's leave everything behind because our children will make it across the border.'"
"We're basically encouraging moms and babies to cross the river, which is not right. And they're willing to do it," Andrea Morris Rudnik of Team Brownsville.
The Department of Homeland Security was contacted for comment.
Comment: Hannity reports on footage released by a Forbes reporter about Border Patrol rapid processing centers: Gateway Pundit reports on a brazen industrial-scale smuggling operation. The coyote in this particular run was caught, but not all the illegals: Smugglers are not particular about how they go about their activities. Border Patrol is woefully understaffed and underfunded to deal with these situations. The children were fortunate to be rescued:
Biden's administration was given clear, repeated warnings about the consequences of their changes to Trump's policies: