Young Migrants Held By Border Patrol Far Longer Than Allowed, Document Shows
Updated March 16, 20214:35 PM ET
Franco Ordoñez
Dana Farrington, photographed for NPR, 11 March 2020, in Washington DC.
The U.S. government had 4,276 unaccompanied migrant children in custody as of Sunday, according to a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by NPR. The children are spending an average of 117 hours in detention facilities, far longer than the 72 hours allowed by law.
The situation at the Southern border is drawing fresh scrutiny as the Biden administration plots its next steps after signing a massive coronavirus relief package into law. House Democrats are planning to vote on a pair of targeted immigration bills this week that have little hope of passing the Senate, while Republican lawmakers are traveling to the border and denouncing the conditions there.
In a statement Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged the delay between when minors are processed at Border Patrol facilities and when they are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services and eventually placed with sponsors in the U.S. He also laid out what DHS is trying to do to address the situation.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/16/977853878/young-migrants-held-by-border-patrol-far-longer-than-allowed-document-shows
