Biden Calls Up FEMA for Help with Migrant Minor Surge at US-Mexico Border

The number of minors arriving has increased in the last few weeks and has crowded the detention centers.

Joe Biden’s administration has enlisted the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to tend to the arrival of unaccompanied minors at the Mexico border, whose numbers have increased in the last few weeks and who have filled detention centers. The Department of Homeland Security announced the move, expected to last 90 days, in a press release, saying it would help deal with “record numbers of individuals,” although it did not specify any numbers.

According to information published in The New York Times last Monday, the number of children and adults detained has tripled in the last two weeks, bringing the total to 3,250. The increase has filled the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities, largely because they’re not equipped for children, as they are detention centers for adults. The government has to keep children with their families until their cases are resolved, but due to the pandemic and risks of contamination, the process has become more complicated; with the increase of migrants, many have been detained beyond the legal maximum of 72 hours.

“A border patrol facility is no place for a child,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the night of the press release. Mayorkas, the first Latino to lead the Cabinet post that is responsible for immigration, emphasized that the administration is working with the Department of Health and Human Services — which is in charge of distributing supplies to the families — to cover the minors’ requirements, something that “has become more difficult” with COVID-19 restrictions.

The arrival of child migrants who are escaping the poverty and violence of Central America was a challenge for both the Barack Obama and Donald Trump administrations. After the last president shocked observers with his hard-handed politics, actions which translated into immediate returns and the separation of thousands of minors from their parents, the Biden administration has promised a more humane approach. Even so, the Homeland Security secretary emphasized last night that they were still under orders to “return” these children, adults and families to Mexico.

“It is never safe to come to the United States through irregular channels, and this is particularly true during a pandemic,” Mayorkas said, adding, “we are obligated to, in the service of public health — including the health of the very people who are thinking of coming — to impose the travel restrictions under the CDC’s Title 42 authorities and return them to Mexico.” According to statistics reported Saturday by The Washington Post, border police have arrested 100,000 people in the last month, and this month it is looking like the number will reach 130,000. Some 75% of minors are teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17.