The Government ensures that immigrant crossings at the border are reaching their highest level in 20 years

By Rebecca Shabad- NBC News

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday that the United States is expected to reach the highest number of people detained on the border with Mexico in two decades.

"We are about to find more individuals on the southwest border than in the last 20 years. We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children," Mayorkas said in a statement in which he addressed what he described as a "difficult" situation at the border.

"Our goal is a safe, legal and orderly immigration system that is based on our fundamental priorities: keeping our borders safe, addressing the plight of children as required by law and allowing families to be together," he said.

[The number of minors in Border Patrol custody is growing.

Many denounce the conditions of their confinement]

Mayorkas explained that most of the people detained at the border are single adults, and that "they are currently being expelled under the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to manage the public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. ".

Single adults from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) "are quickly expelled to Mexico," Mayorkas said.

Similarly, he added, families detained at the border who come from Mexico or those other countries are being expelled to Mexico unless this country "does not have the capacity to receive the families."

Criminal groups in Mexico take advantage of the wave of migrants on the border with the United States.

March 16, 202101: 26

"Mexico's limited capacity has put our resources to the test, including in the Rio Grande Valley area in Texas. When Mexico's capacity is reached, we process families and place them in immigration proceedings here in the United States." He said.

Mayorkas assured that the United States is finding many children on the southwest border every day who are not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Part of the problem is that the Department of Health does not have the capacity to admit the current number of children that they are finding.

Republicans, however, accuse the current Administration of creating a "crisis" at the border, and denounce that Biden's laxer immigration policies have encouraged people to try to cross into the United States illegally.

[This immigrant has been waiting for a U visa for years in fear of retaliation after testifying against the men who killed her boyfriend]

But Mayorkas blamed the increased border on poverty, high levels of violence and corruption in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries.

He also attributed these high numbers to the past administration of Donald Trump that "completely dismantled the asylum system."

"The system was gutted, facilities were closed and young children were cruelly expelled at the hands of traffickers," Mayorkas said, adding that the Biden Administration has had to rebuild the system.

Mayorkas said the United States is building new facilities to increase capacity, working with Mexico to receive the expelled families and developing a more formal refugee program.

Central American migrants remain near the Paso del Norte international border bridge after being deported from the United States, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on March 11, 2021.REUTERS / Jose Luis González

"We are creating joint processing centers so that children can be placed in the care of HHS immediately after the Border Patrol finds them," he said.

"We are also identifying and equipping additional facilities so that HHS can house unaccompanied children until they are placed with a family or sponsors. These are short-term solutions to deal with the surge of unaccompanied children," he concluded.