Migrant surge puts pressure on Biden
A surge of migrants on the US southwest border has the Biden Administration on the defensive, with the head of Homeland Security acknowledging the depth of the problem but insisting that it it is under control – and that he won’t revive a Trump-era practice of immediately expelling teens and children.
The number of migrants being stopped at the Us-mexico border has been rising steadily since last April, and the administration is still rapidly expelling most single adults and families under a public health order issued by former US president Donald Trump at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it is allowing teenagers and children to stay, at least temporarily – and they have been coming in ever larger numbers.
More than 4000 migrant children are being held by the Border Patrol, including at least 3000 in custody longer than the 72-hour limit set by a court order.
It has put President Joe Biden in a difficult spot, blasted by Republicans for what they view as encouraging illegal border crossers, and by some Democrats over the prolonged detention of minors. It is also a challenge to his efforts to overhaul the broader Trump policies that sought to curtail both legal and illegal immigration.
‘‘The situation at the southwest border is difficult,’’ Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas conceded yesterday in his most extensive remarks to date on the subject. ‘‘We are working around the clock to manage it.’’
The number of migrants attempting to cross the border is at the highest level since March 2019, with Mayorkas warning that it is on track to hit a 20-year peak this year.
The number of children crossing by themselves, mostly from Central America, appears to be surging in particular in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The Border Patrol took in 280 there alone on Tuesday.
The number of children and teens crossing by themselves rose 60 per cent from this January to more than 9400 in February, according to the most recent statistics released publicly by US Customs and Border Protection.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to open shelter facilities at an airfield near San Francisco and in Pecos, Texas, to handle the flow. It is also looking to expand a facility in Donna, Texas, to hold 2000. Also, the Dallas Convention Centre is scheduled to begin holding children as early as today, with plans to accommodate up to 3000.
Mayorkas said the surge in the number of children was a challenge for the Border Patrol and other agencies amid the coronavirus pandemic. But he rejected a Trump-era policy of sending them immediately back to Mexico or other countries.
‘‘They are vulnerable children, and we have ended the prior administration’s practice of expelling them,’’ he said.
Though there have been previous migrant surges, including under Trump, Republicans in Congress say Biden’s support for new immigration legislation and his decision to allow people to make legal asylum claims have become a magnet for migrants.
House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy led a delegation of a dozen Republican lawmakers to the border in
Texas this week, and blamed the Biden Administration for driving an increase in migrants by actions that included supporting legislation in Congress that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people now in the country, and halting border wall construction.
Mayorkas noted that 80 per cent of the minors, most of whom were from the three ‘‘Northern Triangle’’ countries of Central America – Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – had relatives in the US, and 40 per cent had a parent in the US.
‘‘These are children being reunited with their families, who will care for them,’’ he said.
Besides setting up new temporary facilities to house migrant children, it is also backing aid to the Northern Triangle countries to try to stem the flow of migrants at the source.
Mayorkas said the Biden Administration was working to make the asylum process shorter, and to make it possible to petition from an applicant’s home country rather than making a dangerous and uncertain journey.
‘‘We have no illusions about how hard it is,’’ he said, ‘‘and we know it will take time.’’