U.S. PREPARING ANOTHER TENT SITE TO COPE WITH INFLUX AT BORDER

Officials reportedly considering similar facility in Arizona

U.S. border officials are preparing to open another tent facility in South Texas to cope with soaring numbers of migrant families and children crossing into the United States in recent weeks, according to three Homeland Security officials involved in the planning.

The temporary facility is expected to open in the coming weeks in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Del Rio sector, and will be similar to another “soft-sided” structure the agency opened in Donna, Texas, three weeks ago. That site and other Border Patrol facilities are under increasing capacity strain from the burgeoning influx of Central

American minors and family groups in U.S. custody.

Officials are also looking at the possibility of opening additional sites in Arizona, but those plans are less advanced, according to one official.

The Del Rio sector tent facility, which will be located near the town of Eagle Pass, is distinct from another temporary shelter the Biden administration opened this week in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where Health and Human Services is holding migrant teens who crossed the border without a parent.

President Joe Biden has used executive authority to reverse several Trump administration border policies, but he is facing a looming crisis as more and more minors and family groups enter without authorization. The number of minors arriving without a parent has grown to more than 300 each day in recent weeks, a fourfold increase since last fall.

Late Thursday night, 130 adults and teens arrived in a group near Mission, Texas, according to Brian Hastings, the Border Patrol sector chief in Rio Grande Valley. “In less than a 24 hour period, this area alone saw more than 500 illegal entries,” Hastings said in a tweet.

The Trump administration used a pandemic-related public health order to rapidly send bordercrossers back to Mexico, but the policy was denounced by immigrant rights groups for sending vulnerable minors to dangerous border cities. Biden ordered CBP to stop “expelling” minors, and since then the number of teens and children arriving without parents has ballooned.

U.S. law requires CBP to deliver unaccompanied minors to HHS within 72 hours, but the volume of new arrivals has led to backups.