Thousands of migrants crossing the U.S. border overwhelmed government agents

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Thousands of Central American immigrants, many of them unaccompanied children, have crossed the southern border in recent days, overwhelming government agents.

Mexican officials told many of those trying to cross the border that they could enter the United States. In a camp on the Mexican side of the border, which had been set up two years ago, some asylum seekers were told they could reopen their cases and could eventually enter the United States to await the process. asylum, according to a CBS Report.

Mexican authorities have long tried to close the makeshift camps created by migrants trying to cross into the U.S.

The new influx is largely due to the instability and growing rate of COVID-19 infection in Central American countries, as well as the perception of a change in immigration rules under the Biden administration. , according to US Customs and Border Protection.

A migrant family waits for their bus at a bus station in Brownsville, Texas.
A migrant family waits for their bus at a bus station in Brownsville, Texas.
Sergio Flores / AFP via Getty Images

Last week, Border Patrol agents reported that 350 children were crossing the United States a day without their parents, more than four times the number compared to last fall, according to reports.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency that works to house unaccompanied minors, said they have been processing an average of 337 children a day. In January, the agency’s shelters saw more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors arrive in the United States, a 19% increase since December, according to the CBS report. This figure is the highest the agency has recorded in February. In February 2019, the agency registered about 5,900 minors, according to CBS.

A Honduran migrant seeking asylum in the United States finds himself in front of rows of shops on the border crossing of Tijuana, Mexico.
A Honduran migrant seeking asylum in the United States finds himself in front of rows of shops on the border crossing of Tijuana, Mexico.
Gregory Bull / AP

Unaccompanied children must be delivered within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services. There are currently 7,700 unaccompanied minors under the care of HHS, which opened an overflow shelter in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for children between the ages of 13 and 17 earlier this year. The agency is also conducting a “site survey” at a military barracks in Fort Lee, Virginia, to find other overflowing temporary homes, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

The men are looking for a place to sleep in a shelter full of deported migrants from the United States, in the border city of Nogales, Mexico, in April 2010.
The men are looking for a place to sleep in a shelter full of deported migrants from the United States, in the border city of Nogales, Mexico, in April 2010.
Gregory Bull, File / AP

In the past, the overflow facilities operated at a limited capacity due to the coronavirus, but on Friday the Biden administration notified HHS that they could reopen the facilities to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the increase is likely to increase, according to a CNN. report last week.

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