By Gabriela Martínez and Belisa Morillo
The government chaired by Joe Biden assured that it seeks to shorten the stay of unaccompanied migrant children who cross the border and spend an average of 34 days in shelters waiting to be taken in by relatives, acquaintances or volunteers in the United States.
An official of the Department of Health (HHS, for its acronym in English) said Thursday that they will contact their families without waiting for them to come to pick them up to try to speed up the procedures, especially when the federal government is running out of beds to accommodate minors given the growing influx of arrivals at the border.
“We are not waiting for them to arrive at one of our facilities to start contacting a family member or sponsor. We do it as soon as possible ”
, he explained.
[Two immigrants drown in the Rio Grande. A witness claims that the Border Patrol saw it but did not intervene]
The official noted that the government is working with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to contact a family member or sponsor for the child before it even enters HHS care.
Legally, the processing of minors is different from that of other migrants, and they must pass to the network of shelters of the Department of Health in less than 72 hours, but the Border Patrol now keeps thousands in custody beyond that period due to lack capacity to house them.
"Some of the things we have already done include paying for the flight or transportation of a child, if that is an impediment," added the official, "our number one priority is to reunite unaccompanied children with a family member or sponsor who has in the United States as quickly and safely as possible ”, he added.
According to this official,
90% of unaccompanied minors manage to reunite with a family member or sponsor.
He also assured that they are adding some of the beds that were removed due to the measures to control the coronavirus pandemic.
And he pointed out that the staff in charge of caring for the children will be vaccinated.
According to officials, about 29,000 minors crossed the border through the end of February.
And as of this Wednesday, there were 9,562 in HHS care.
This announcement comes almost a week after the Government announced the cancellation of an immigration policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump, which put in danger of being deported those relatives or sponsors who appeared before DHS who had crossed the border alone and they had passed into federal custody.
Trump allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) to collect information on the immigration status of those who came to look for unaccompanied minors and thus be able to deport them.
