Faced with the influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border of the United States, the government of Democrat Joe Biden has reopened a temporary reception structure where there were more than 200 adolescents on Tuesday, March 2, according to the Ministry of Health.
Read also: Biden will present from his first day a vast migration reform
The new president, who has promised to lead a “
healthy and humane
”
migration policy
, here revives one of the most controversial policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump: the continued detention of minors.
The center, located in Carrizo Springs in Texas, was initially intended to accommodate oil workers and served to house young migrants for a month, in July 2019, under the administration of the Republican.
Faced with "
an increase in arrivals
" of unaccompanied minors and the limits placed on sustainable structures by the Covid-19 pandemic, the new administration reopened it on February 22 and 214 adolescents, aged 13 to 17, were were there on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
The number of underage migrants arriving alone at the border with Mexico fell to a low of 741 in April 2020 and has risen steadily since then to stand at 5,871 in January.
These arrivals represent "
a challenge but we face it
", assured Monday the Minister of Internal Security Alejandro Mayorkas, by denying the existence of a crisis at the border.
The opening of the Carrozo center, which has a total capacity of 700 places, has stirred up migrants' rights activists.
“
This cannot become a status quo,
” Amnesty International said in particular.
In an interview this weekend, Joe Biden hoped he could close it quickly.
The Ministry of Health intends to speed up the process of verifying “
sponsors
”, usually family members, to whom unaccompanied foreign minors can be handed over.
This would make it possible to reduce the length of their stay in reception structures and avoid their congestion if arrivals remain high.