The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE BORDER
President Joe Biden’s administration has tried for weeks to keep the public from seeing images like those that emerged Monday showing immigrant children in U.S. custody at the border sleeping on mats under foil blankets, separated in groups by plastic partitions. Administration officials have refused to call the detention of more than 15,000 children in U.S. custody a crisis. But they have stymied most efforts by outsiders to decide for themselves. The president faces growing criticism — including from fellow Democrats — for the secrecy at the border as well as for the surge in people trying to cross into the U.S.
What is the situation at the southern border?
The Biden administration is scrambling to control the biggest surge in 20 years, with the nation on pace for as many as 2 million migrants at the southern border this year.
There are currently more than 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the care of Health and Human Services, and 5,000 more in the care of Customs and Border Protection, nearly twice the previous record, according to the latest figures obtained by the Washington Post.
The administration is rushing to open more space to get roughly 5,000 children out of Border Patrol detention and into Health and Human Services facilities that are better suited for youth. It has also tried to expedite the releases of children in HHS custody to parents and other sponsors in the U.S. But border agents continue to apprehend far more children daily than HHS is releasing, even though more than 40% of youths in the system have a parent or legal guardian who could take them.
Meanwhile, the administration is seeing its emergency facilities for immigrant children approach capacity almost as quickly as it can open them. The downtown Dallas convention center has 1,500 teenagers less than a week after opening and was expected to take in 500 more teens Monday, according to HHS. Its current capacity is 2,300 people.
How did photos from inside the facility get published?
Officials have blocked nonprofit lawyers who conduct oversight from entering a Border Patrol tent where thousands of children and teenagers are detained. And federal agencies have refused or ignored dozens of requests from the media for access to detention sites. Such access was granted several times by the administration of President Donald Trump, whose restrictive immigration approach Biden vowed to reverse.
Axios on Monday first published a series of photos taken inside the largest Border Patrol detention center, a sprawling tent facility in the South Texas city of Donna. The photos were released by Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat from the border city of Laredo.
Cuellar said he released the photos in part because the administration has refused media access to the Donna tent. He said he also wanted to draw attention to the extreme challenges that border agents face in watching so many children, sometimes for a week or longer despite the Border Patrol’s threeday limit on detaining minors.
“We ought to take care of those kids like they’re our own kids,” Cuellar said.
What led to this surge? Who is to blame?
Some of the factors facing Biden and his team are outside of their control, from deteriorating conditions in Central America to the increasing flow of migrants that had already been happening in Trump’s final months. Under a Trump-era public health order known as Title 42, the Biden administration had been rapidly expelling border-crossers to Mexico. But in late January, Mexican authorities stopped taking back some of the families — a step that forced U.S. border agents to accept parents with children under 7, further exacerbating the influx.
But critics blame Biden. He issued five immigration executive orders on
Inauguration Day alone and promised an immigration policy far more humane and welcoming than that of his predecessor. His administration also began allowing unaccompanied minors into the country, a marked departure from the Trump administration. The administration’s actions, critics say, encouraged more migrants to try their luck.
“When you create a system that incentivizes people to come across, and they are released, that immediately sends a message to Central America that if you come across you can stay,” said Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, whose South Texas district sits near the border with Mexico.
Were there warnings that a surge would happen?
The White House has prided itself on its methodical rollout of policy during its first 50-plus days but West Wing aides privately acknowledge they were caught off guard by the surge of migrants at the border and the resulting furor.
But before Biden took office, career officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued alarms to the Biden team about the likelihood of a crisis that could overwhelm the nation’s capacity.
What are the political consequences?
Republican lawmakers and media pundits have grabbed on to the border situation with both hands, reviving the issue that was key to propelling Trump to the top of the Republican field in 2016.
It’s a political cudgel that poses risks to Democrats in the 2022 midterms and could undermine Biden’s agenda.