More than 800 migrant children were found alone wandering along the United States’ southern border during a span of two days, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
U.S. Border Patrol agents last Thursday detained 336 unaccompanied minors, compared with December 30 when 150 children were found without their parents or legal guardians along the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico.
CBP stats also showed that officers encountered an additional 485 unaccompanied minors for unlawfully crossing the border last Wednesday.
Spanish news agency EFE first reported.
According to CBP, U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped 821 unaccompanied children at the southwestern border last Wednesday and Thursday. Pictured is a group of at least 280 children who were encountered on July 29 near Texas’s border with Mexico
A Border Patrol officer oversees migrants stepping out of a bus in Del Rio, Texas, on September 22, 2021
U.S. Border Patrol agents came across 171,198 children who were sent alone by their parents to the United States in 2021
The mass number of children found without their parents at the border reflects the continuing struggles that the administration of President Joe Biden has faced with getting both sides of Congress to reform the nation’s immigration laws since arriving at the White House.
The administration’s removal of immigration policies set by former President Donald Trump saw encounters with unaccompanied minors worsen the border crisis.
A new monthly report released Monday by CBP showed that 171,198 unaccompanied children were taken into custody between in 2021.
However, there was a 14 percent drop in unaccompanied children encountered towards the end of the calendar year, with 13,937 reported in November compared with 11,921 in December.
Migrants await to board a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bus after they were stopped in La Joya, Texas, on April 13, 2021 after crossing from Mexico without legal documents
CBP reported 2,035,010 encounters with undocumented migrants who were stopped by U.S. Border Patrol agents for unlawful crossing of the United States-Mexico border between January 2021 and December 2021
CBP said agents placed an average of 352 unaccompanied children in custody in December after averaging 926 throughout November.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, at least 8,525 migrant children were in custody of the Department of Health and Human Services as of Sunday.
Per U.S. federal immigration laws, children taken into custody by CBP must be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours. The agency then places the children at shelters that it directly funds or turns the children over to parents or other adults.
Overall, 178,840 migrants were apprehended attempting to enter the United States from Mexico in December, raising the total number of apprehensions at the southern border in all of 2021 to 2,035,010. In comparison, 547,777 interdictions with migrants were registered in 2020, Trump’s last calendar year in office.
The Republican Party quickly accused Democratic President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of having created a ‘historic humanitarian crisis.’
Harris, who was chosen by Biden to lead the administration’s efforts in resolving the southern border plight, has visited the region only once, doing so June 26, 2021.
‘On their watch, cartels and smugglers are thriving, border officials are overwhelmed, our communities are less safe,’ said Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement.
Harris is slated to visit Honduras on January 27 to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro.
The White House said in a statement last week that Harris will be meeting with Castro “to deepen the partnership between the United States and Honduras and work together to advance economic growth, combat corruption, and address the root causes of migration.”