More than 800 unaccompanied migrant children were apprehended in a single day this week, as the numbers of migrants coming to the southern border continue to surge with no sign of slowing down despite the heat of the summer months.
Health and Human Services announced Thursday that 834 teenagers and children unaccompanied were arrested. This is significantly more than the average of 512 for the 30-day period.
This means that 2,784 children are in Customs and Border Protection custody and 14,523 are in HHS custody. Biden’s administration has focused on the transfer of children at the border from CBP custody to HHS custody, and then to parents or sponsors already in the country, often illegally. On Thursday, 612 children were released from HHS custody and given to their parents or guardians.
These numbers are indicative of a continued surge at the southern border, a sign that the border crisis which has plagued the Biden administration is not likely to end soon. In the past, the extreme heat in the summer months has deterred many from making the trip north. However, the numbers are not slowing.
Biden’s administration has expedited single adults and migrant family members via Title 42 public safety protections related to COVID-19 pandemic, but not unaccompanied children or migrant parents with small children.
In June, more than 188,000 migrants were found. There was also an increase in UACs and migrant families units. According to the Associated Press, that number will rise to over 210,000 in July according to this week’s report. This is a significant increase from the 78,000 encounters when President Biden assumed office in January and 33,000 encounters in June 2020.
In June, the number of unaccompanied children encountered increased by 8% with 15,253 encounters in June as compared to May’s 14,137.
Republicans blame the Biden administration for the surge in Trump-era policies. This includes its refusal to apply Title 42 UACs to them, as well as its rolling back of the Migrant Protection Protocols. These protocols (MPP) have been criticized by Republicans as they allow for the end of border wall construction and greatly narrowing internal enforcement. They warned not only about criminals entering the country, but also of the possible spread of COVID-19.
Instead, the Biden administration has emphasized “root causes”, such as violence, poverty and climate change in Central America. It also boasted its ability to swiftly shift children through CBP custody and HHS custody.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in a visit to El Paso, Texas in June, said the Department of Homeland Security has made “extreme progress” and pointed to the quicker processing of the tens of thousands of migrants arriving each month.
She said, “They have implemented technology that has over the past couple of months expedited processing of people arriving at our frontier,”
