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More than 200 border agents have been diverted to this CBP facility to care for the children, Capito said. The children, who arrived at the southern border without a parent, are legally allowed to be held for only 72 hours in CBP custody before being transferred elsewhere. But many are there for days longer than that, she added.
“I’m very alarmed about the numbers and extremely concerned about the overstay in the facility,” said Capito, who called the circumstances “heart-rending.”
“They’ll move 50 out a night [and] have another 100 come in that night,” she said.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who also went on the trip, said these are “not kids in so-called cages.”
But, he added, they are not facilities that anyone would “want your child in for more than 10 minutes.”
“You’re sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor. They are sort of bunched, you know, about six inches to a foot from each other,” Murphy said on NPR Saturday. “We’ve got to ultimately do better.”
On Twitter, Murphy added, “The desperation these kids and families are fleeing is hard to describe. The memory of that 13 yr old girl will be w me forever. So long as conditions are abysmal in places south, people will find a way to get here, no matter how high the wall is or how many border agents.”
The bipartisan delegation that traveled with Mayorkas to El Paso on Friday is likely to increase scrutiny on the Biden administration, which is struggling to manage the growing influx of children at the border overwhelming the U.S. immigration system.
Unaccompanied children and teens in CBP custody must be transferred to the care of Health and Human Services within three days, although the minors coming now are being held for days longer than that.
The attention is also coming at a time when Capitol Hill is shifting its focus to immigration policy, with the House passing legislation earlier this week that would offer legal status for young undocumented immigrants and agricultural workers already in the United States.
The House will consider other related bills in the coming weeks, as Democratic leaders begin rounding up support for President Biden’s comprehensive immigration proposal.
But Congress’s energy may soon be diverted into ensuring that the Biden administration has adequate resources to manage the challenges at the border. Murphy and Capito are the top Democrat and Republican overseeing Homeland Security Department funding in the Senate.
The White House has…
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