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About 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children arrived in the United States after crossing the border with Mexico in March, according to Border Patrol data released Thursday. This is the highest monthly figure ever recorded in the country. The situation represents one of the most important tests for President Joe Biden, who according to his detractors encourages irregular immigration, after reversing the harsh laws of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
The US Border Patrol found 18,663 unaccompanied children in March, a number well above previously recorded records: 11,475 in May 2019 and 10,620 in June 2014. The federal agency began releasing the figures in 2009. Before that date, adults made up the vast majority of those who crossed the border from Mexico.
The count of minors without parents or guardians who arrived on US soil last month is also approximately double that registered in February and more than five times higher than that reported in March 2020.
The enormous increase in children who travel without family members, some even as young as 3 years old, added to families with children, have the border authorities on the ropes, since they cannot retain people in detention facilities for a period longer than three days.
BREAKING: US authorities say they picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March. It’s the largest monthly number ever recorded and a major test for President Biden. https://t.co/NQgX594B5y
– The Associated Press (@AP) April 8, 2021
Although they often exceed that time, President Joe Biden’s order has been to treat more humanely, so he has made investments to keep migrant families in hotels while the process for their deportation completes. In addition, it is necessary to hire personnel to take care of unaccompanied minors until they are relocated with relatives they may have within the United States.
The government insists that its border is not open to receive undocumented people and urges them to request due process from their countries of origin. However, Biden has also been clear in not expelling minors, with the exception of cases in which they are part of a family nucleus that is also expelled, as has been seen in television images in recent months.
They ensure that the majority of undocumented migrant families remain in the United States
US border agents say they expelled from the country about a third of immigrant parents and children traveling together who were caught crossing the southern border last March.
About 17,000 of the nearly 53,000 parents and children captured at the border last month were deported under a public health order related to the Covid-19 pandemic, known as Title 42, according to a US government official, the Wednesday.
The rest of the people were registered in immigration procedures, also under the same measure that was implemented in 2020, under the administration of Donald Trump and which is one of the few immigration regulations that are maintained by the previous government.
According to the same government sources, Mexico’s refusal to accept Central American families with children under 6 years of age, due to a new law against the detention of migrant families, has limited the effectiveness of the expulsions.
That means hundreds of migrants go to bus stations in Texas border cities like McAllen and Brownsville on their way to their final destinations in the United States.
Last month the Border Patrol began releasing migrant families within the United States, with no notice to appear in court or indication to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in the next 60 days.
For these reasons, there are those who claim that the majority of undocumented detainees at the border are remaining within the United States, and Republicans accuse Biden of promoting irregular immigration.
However, Biden ratified on March 25 that his administration is “sending back the vast majority of the families that come” and that it is “trying to resolve with Mexico its willingness to recover more of those families.”
Faced with the apparent disconnect between the figures and Biden’s statements, White House spokesman Vedant Patel said that the government’s policy is to expel single adults and families to Mexico under Title 42 if they are caught crossing the border. illegally, but added that it does not always happen.
“In the event that Mexico cannot receive an individual or a family, they are placed in immigration proceedings in the United States,” he said in a statement.
In total, more than 172,000 migrants were captured at the US-Mexico border last March, according to government data. Of those arrests, approximately 168,000 people were detained by border patrol agents at ports of entry. It is the highest monthly count since March 2001, when nearly 171,000 were captured.
Biden defends himself against the increase in crossings of people at the border and holds his predecessor, Donald Trump, responsible for dismantling the systems to receive asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors in an organized manner.
With AP and Reuters
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source https://pledgetimes.com/the-number-of-unaccompanied-minors-arriving-in-the-us-sets-records/
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