Migrant families and children cross the Rio Grande into Texas.ADREES LATIF / Reuters
The number of unaccompanied migrant minors detained at the southern border of the United States has tripled in the last two weeks, according to
The New York Times
.
There are 3,250 minors, according to documents cited by the newspaper, and 1,360 of them have exceeded the maximum term of 72 hours of detention, at the end of which the law requires them to be transferred to shelters from detention centers.
These facilities, not unlike prisons and built to house adults, are overcrowded.
They are managed by the Customs and Border Protection Agency, which has been widely criticized for the dire conditions in which children are found in these federal centers.
The law requires the transfer of minors, within three days of their arrest, to shelters managed by the Department of Health, where they remain until they find a home.
These shelters were operating at reduced capacity due to the pandemic, but last Friday the government lifted the restrictions.
Still, according to documents cited by the
Times
These shelters are also 13 days away from reaching “maximum capacity”.
Up to 2,600 minors are waiting to be housed in these most suitable shelters, according to CNN, but there are only 500 beds available.
The figures reveal the urgency for the Biden Administration to manage the increase in people trying to cross the border, encouraged by the confidence that this president will be more compassionate with them than the previous one, as he promised during the election campaign and has reiterated during his first weeks in the White House.
In January, during the transition of power, the police intercepted migrants at the border on about 78,000 occasions, the highest figure for that month in 10 years.
Most were adults or families who were quickly returned under emergency regulations due to the pandemic.
Of that total, 5,800 were unaccompanied children, who by law must take into their custody and find a space to take them in.