U.S. TO OPEN MORE BEDS FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN AS NUMBERS CONTINUE TO RISE

Facilities instructed to lift capacity limits imposed because of pandemic

President Joe Biden’s administration is instructing long-term facilities that hold immigrant children to lift capacity restrictions enacted during the coronavirus pandemic to open up muchneeded beds in a system facing sharply increasing needs.

A memo issued Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells service providers to “temporarily increase capacity to full licensed capacity while implementing and adhering to strict COVID-19 mitigation measures.” It’s not clear how many beds will come available beyond the roughly 7,000 that were online last month. HHS’ fully licensed capacity was more than 13,000 beds late last year.

Some facilities have reduced their capacity by as much as half during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, hundreds of children waiting to be placed in HHS’ system are being detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in tent facilities or large cells unequipped to hold minors. Images and stories of packed Border Patrol cells in 2018 and 2019 sparked outrage, with accounts of families and young children fending for themselves without adequate food and water.

Lifting pandemic-related caps could increase the risk of spreading the coronavirus within HHS facilities, especially as more children enter the system. But the organizations that run HHS facilities and some advocates have pushed for more beds to be made available if done safely, rather than keeping children in Border Patrol facilities longer or placing them in costly, unlicensed emergency centers.

“Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no

0% risk scenario, particularly in congregate settings,” says the memo, first reported by CNN. “Therefore, ORR facilities should plan for and expect to have COVID-19 cases.”

HHS has previously authorized facility operators to bill the government for travel expenses when a child is released to a parent or other sponsor. Some families cannot afford the hundreds of dollars to fly a child and a guardian, and disputes over payment can sometimes delay a child’s release for several days.

Agents are apprehending around 400 children a day who are not unaccompanied by a parent or guardian, a sharp increase since last month. There are concerns that those numbers will continue to rise.

Biden ended a practice under former President Donald Trump of expelling unaccompanied children under a public-health declaration enacted during the pandemic, though his administration continues to expel immigrant families and adults. Some former Trump administration officials have accused Biden of inspiring immigrants to try to enter the U.S. illegally, even though the numbers under the Biden administration have not approached their peak under the previous administration.

The practice of expelling children was sharply criticized and often returned them to dangerous situations without having given them the chance to seek asylum or speak to a lawyer.

Trump issued a statement Friday alleging that the “border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden.”

“We don’t take our advice or counsel from former President Trump on immigration policy, which was not only inhumane but ineffective over the last four years,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded Friday. “We’re going to chart our own path forward, and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they’re safe when they cross our borders.”

Also on Friday, the U.S. government said immigration authorities will no longer use a small Pennsylvania detention center to hold parents and children seeking asylum, part of the administration’s broader shift to reduce the use of family detention.

In a court filing Friday, the government said it had released all families detained at the 96-bed Berks County family detention center in Leesport, Pa. The detention center will instead be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold adults, the government said.

Families will still be detained at larger detention centers in Karnes City and Dilley in Texas, but the government intends to hold people at those sites for three days or less, the court filing said.

Lawyers who work with detained immigrant families welcomed the news and credited the Biden administration for announcing the shift. But they noted that even shorter detention stays could be harmful to children.

“Family detention will never truly be over until the facilities are closed and the contracts with ICE end,” said Bridget Cambria, executive director of the legal group Aldea — The People’s Justice Center.

All three family detention centers opened when Biden was vice president in the Obama administration. While running for president, Biden pledged to release detained families.

The Biden administration has already released several families seeking asylum who had been detained for a year or longer in Texas and in some cases came within hours of deportation. Those families will pursue their cases while remaining subject to ICE monitoring.