Border Crisis: Migrant Children in Shelters ‘More Than Doubled in the Past Two Months’

Border Crisis: Migrant Children in Shelters ‘More Than Doubled in the Past Two Months’

I don’t know what to do with this Associated Press’s article about migrant children staying in shelters with little oversight.

The URL mentions former President Donald Trump, but not President Joe Biden. AP once again does not use the word cages. The tone is sympathetic even though it criticizes Biden.

Trump and Tone

Let me get this annoyance out of the way.

Thank you, Twitchy, for showing us the URL has Trump in it (emphasis theirs):

But why does this article on the BIDEN ADMINISTRATION have a URL that still files the story as if it’s about former President Donald Trump: “https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-immigration-health-coronavirus-pandemic-government-and-politics-3b4e480c9021e6a8e02313f4c73a497e”?

AP should have had Biden in the URL if it had to mention a president. Trump and Biden would have been somewhat okay with me. But in all honesty, this takes away from the actual story: migrant children are in shelters with little oversight.

Shelters. Yes, now that Biden is president, the children are in shelters, not cages.

I read sympathy through the criticism of Biden’s administration because it includes too many shots at Trump. You know, almost like, how dare Biden do this, but Trump tied his hands so it will take forever to get all of this straightened out.

Migrant Children

I mentioned in my quick hit in the newsletter (if you don’t subscribe you should!) that the border crisis has fallen through the cracks.

AP learned Biden’s administration has children in 200 facilities in two dozen states. At least five shelters have more than 1,000 children:

Confidential data obtained by the AP shows the number of migrant children in government custody more than doubled in the past two months, and this week the federal government was housing around 21,000 kids, from toddlers to teens. A facility at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday. Attorneys, advocates and mental health experts say that while some shelters are safe and provide adequate care, others are endangering children’s health and safety.

“It’s almost like ‘Groundhog Day,’” said Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Luz Lopez, referring to the 1993 film in which events appear to be continually repeating. “Here we are back to a point almost where we started, where the government is using taxpayer money to build large holding facilities … for children instead of using that money to find ways to more quickly reunite children with their sponsors.”

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Mark Weber, said the department’s staff and contractors are working hard to keep children in their custody safe and healthy.

However, HHS has received complaints of abuse at shelters. As a result, officials dismissed some “contract staffers” from the sites in 2021.

In April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demanded Biden close a San Antonio facility due to sexual abuse allegations. Abbott also heard tips alleging an insufficient number of staffers, children not eating, and staffers unable to separate COVID positive children from COVID negative children.

Weber stated: “HHS has worked as swiftly as possible to increase bed capacity and to ensure potential sponsors can provide a safe home while the child goes through their immigration proceedings. As soon as wrap around services — on-site primary care, including childhood immunizations and physicals, case management, phone calls to family members, education, recreation etc — become available as a result of additional infrastructure and staff, they are provided as part of the operation.”

Custody. Shelter. Facilities. The MSM used the word “cages” a lot during Trump’s administration.

The AP touted Biden’s transparency compared to Trump:

Inside the facilities, called Emergency Intake Sites, children aren’t guaranteed access to education, recreational opportunities or legal counsel.

In a recent news release, the administration touted its “restoration of a child centered focus for unaccompanied children,” and it has been sharing daily totals of the number of children in government custody as well as a few photos of the facilities. This reflects a higher level of transparency than the Trump administration. In addition, the amount of time children spend, on average, inside the system has dropped from four months last fall to less than a month this spring, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

You know, except that Biden limited media access to the facilities and law enforcement.

Advocates worry about these mass shelters, which have “hundreds of beds apiece”:

These facilities can leave children isolated, less supervised and without basic services. The AP found about half of all migrant children detained in the U.S. are sleeping in shelters with more than 1,000 other children. More than 17,650 are in facilities with 100 or more children. Some shelters and foster programs are small, little more than a house with a handful of kids. A large Houston facility abruptly closed last month after it was revealed that children were being given plastic bags instead of access to restrooms.

Child psychiatrist Amy Cohen said, “The system has been very dysfunctional, and it’s getting worse.” She mentioned children “are coming out sick, with COVID, infested with lice, and it will not surprise me to see children dying as a consequence, as we saw during the Trump years.”

Cohen slammed Biden for “putting up these pop-up detention facilities” and staffing them with people who “have no experience working with children.”

Oh, you mean like the employees from the Department of Agriculture?

A report in late April said the department planned to send 500 employees to the border to help with the surge of unaccompanied children. However, the emails obtained by The Spectator said the employees would receive no training before the trip.

Biden’s administration has blamed the slow response on the lawsuits from advocacy groups filed during the Trump administration because those are taking up too much time.

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