U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks throughout a press instruction at the White House in Washington, March 1, 2021.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will assist shelter and move a record variety of kid migrants appearing at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Homeland Security secretary stated Saturday,
While the administration of President Joe Biden has actually prevented calling the circumstance a nationwide emergency situation as previous President Donald Trump stated in 2019, it acknowledged an increasing variety of “encounters” at the border considering that April.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas stated FEMA would assist kids discovered at the border prevent being dealt with as detainees of Customs and Border Protection and move them faster into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.
From there, he stated, the kids might be put with a relative or sponsor up until their migration cases are processed.
“I have said many times, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child,” Mayorkas stated in a declaration.
FEMA will discover and broaden appropriate centers for the kids, the Homeland Security Department stated, and grownups and accompanied kids will continue to be gone back to Mexico.
Homeland Security authorities stated volunteers likewise would belong of the effort to discover shelter for the migrant kids.
So lots of unaccompanied minors were appearing at the border in late winter season that some observers think a brand-new humanitarian crisis might be developing.
More than 3,200 unaccompanied migrant kids are being housed in Customs and Border Protection holding centers, NBC News reported Monday. More than half were being kept in so-called “ice boxes” not meant for kids due to the fact that detainees can just be kept in the cells for an optimum of 3 days.
