President Joe Biden announced this Sunday that he will go to the border “at some point,” due to the drastic increase in recent weeks in migrants trying to cross into the United States on a daily basis.
“I know what’s going on at the (immigrant) facility,” Biden told reporters Sunday. “We are now in the process of making sure we establish what existed before, which was to be able to stay and defend your case in your home country,” he added.
This announcement is contrary to what the president said just days ago, when he stated that he did not plan to travel to the border between Mexico and the United States, despite the fact that several congressmen, including Democratic Senator Nancy Pelosi, have described the immigration situation current as a “humanitarian crisis”.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that the country may see the highest number of migrants at the border in the last 20 years.
According to official figures given to NBC News, as of this Sunday there were 15,678 unaccompanied immigrant minors in the custody of the United States government. In addition, all the shelters for immigrants are overflowing at their maximum capacity.
“Our message has been clear: the border is closed”, Assured the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. “We are expelling families, we are expelling adults who arrive alone, and we have made the decision that we will not expel vulnerable young children.”
“We have seen a large number of migrations in the past. We know how to approach it. We have a plan. We are executing our plan and we will achieve it, ”Mayorkas said. But, he added: “It takes time” and is “especially challenging and difficult now” due to the measures taken by the Trump administration. “So we are rebuilding the system as we address the needs of vulnerable children who have reached our borders.”
The migrants arrived in Texas after crossing the Rio Grande, in the midst of a wave of migration that worries US authorities.
In the early days of his tenure, Biden sought to undo some of Trump’s measures, which some migrants interpreted as a green light to travel to the United States. While the new administration was working on immigration legislation to address long-term issues, it did not have a plan to handle a surge in migrants.
The Biden government has refused to describe the situation as a “crisis”, Amid a rhetorical battle in the corridors of Washington over what the current circumstance should be called.
Immigration professionals had warned that the number of migrants arriving at the border would dramatically increase after the November elections, when word spread that Trump’s policies, widely viewed as cruel, would be overturned.
While the number of children in Border Patrol custody is setting new records once again this week, immigration attorneys told NBC News that some migrant families choose to send their children to the southern border alone because they see it. as the best opportunity to stay in the US.
The images of “children in cages” that defined the policy of family separations under Trump no longer proliferate under Biden, but the current administration struggles to create the capacity to cope with the increase.
Unaccompanied children and teens detained by Customs and Border Protection are now transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services within three days, although some spend longer than that.
Authorities are trying to build capacity to serve some 14,000 migrants who are now in federal custody and face the possibility of many more arriving. Critics say the administration should have been better prepared.
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