PolitiFact s ruling: True
Here s why: Unaccompanied minors have been arriving at the southern U.S. border in record numbers since President Joe Biden took office, and Republican leaders in border states have been quick to highlight the challenges the federal government is facing.
Gov. Greg Abbott has hammered the Biden administration on border issues throughout March. First he accused the administration of “reckless border policies” that have released migrants who tested positive for COVID-19 into the U.S. And in recent weeks, the governor has focused on the uptick of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border.
On March 30, Abbott claimed in a tweet that “twice as many children are in Border Patrol custody under Biden than Trump peak in 2019.”
Two young girls watch a World Cup soccer match on a television from their holding area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Arizona, June 18, 2014. | (Photo: Reuters/Ross D. Franklin/Pool)
A leading Christian foster care agency has placed nearly 300 unaccompanied immigrant children in foster homes across the United States in recent months as the U.S. continues to deal with a surge of unaccompanied minors at the southern border.
Bethany Christian Services, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization, had placed 299 unaccompanied children in foster care homes nationwide since last November when a federal judge issued an injunction against former President Donald Trump’s use of Title 42 to deport unaccompanied children from the U.S. in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The situation at the US-Mexico border is a crisis – but is it new?
Sunday, April 4, 2021 11:35 PM UTC
The media create the impression that there is an unprecedented crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, with droves of children arriving alone, as well as families flooding to the border.
There is a crisis.
Children and families have been fleeing to the U.S. for years, particularly from Mexico and the so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Yet aspects of the current situation are different from the past. And whether more individuals are attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border “than have been in the last 20 years,” as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas predicted, remains to be seen.
In a move that was condemned by environmental justice advocates on Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration earlier this week sent 500 unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors to Fort Bliss a highly contaminated and potentially hazardous military base in El Paso, Texas and is reportedly considering using additional toxic military sites as detention centers for migrant children in U.S. custody.
“We are extremely concerned to hear of plans to detain immigrant children in Fort Bliss. Military bases filled with contaminated sites are no place for the healthy development of any child,” Melissa Legge, an attorney at Earthjustice, said in a statement.
“We recognize that the humanitarian situation at the border needs to be addressed in humanity, compassion, and expediency,” Legge continued. “Part of that requires keeping children away from toxic military sites.”
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The Long Beach Convention Center is poised to become the second temporary facility in California to hold migrant children who traveled to the southern U.S. border without their parents or legal guardians.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said in an interview Monday that migrant children could begin arriving within a week. The San Diego Convention Center started taking in migrant children late last month. Federal authorities also have requested to use Camp Roberts, a California Army National Guard base along the Central Coast.
The contract still must be approved by the Long Beach City Council, which will hold a special meeting Tuesday to decide whether to move forward. The plan is not expected to face opposition.