Uncle Sam Plays a Shell Game With More Migrant Children

Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) boss Alejandro Mayorkas not too long ago patted himself on the again for a pointy discount of unlawful alien minors in DHS custody. However the Related Press reviews that the variety of migrant kids in authorities detention greater than doubled to 21,000 previously two months.

With
the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) now dealing with housing, the
Biden administration is counting on large-scale unlicensed emergency services
inside navy installations, stadiums and conference facilities, skirting state
laws and authorized oversight.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, mentioned the human shell recreation begins in his border district. “All they’re doing is transferring youngsters from one [DHS] tent to the opposite [HHS] tent.”

HHS declines to say if there are legally enforceable requirements for accommodating kids at its emergency websites or how they’re monitored. The company wouldn’t touch upon any efforts to trace launched minors, as required by legislation.

The
Trump administration successfully closed the U.S.-Mexico border to all migrants,
citing public well being considerations about COVID-19. Now unaccompanied alien kids (UACs)
are allowed entry to hunt asylum, so mother and father ship youngsters throughout the border alone.

One veteran social employee says she’s by no means seen the state of affairs so unhealthy. “Youngsters are popping out sick, with COVID, infested with lice, and it’ll not shock me to see kids dying as a consequence,” mentioned Amy Cohen, government director of the nonprofit Each. Final. One.

The
AP, citing confidential administration sources, counted greater than 17,650 UACs in
services with 100 or extra kids. An enormous holding heart in Houston abruptly
closed after it was revealed that kids got plastic luggage as a substitute of
entry to restrooms. Many smaller shelters, personal houses housing handfuls of
youngsters, don’t present entry to training or recreation.

HHS says the common size of keep has dropped from 4 months final fall to lower than a month. But the AP relates persevering with allegations of abuse and neglect. Individually, whistleblowers charged that human traffickers absconded with kids from a 2,000-bed authorities shelter in San Antonio.

Final week, reviews surfaced about migrant youths confined to buses parked exterior the Dallas conference heart, the place a 3,000-bed facility was crammed to capability. Administration officers known as that “fully unacceptable.”

With Washington spending $62 million every week to accommodate migrant minors – some in squalid, insecure circumstances — Mayorkas and the remainder of Group Biden don’t have anything to cheer about.