(The Center Square) â The Biden administration has sent federal officials to the Texas-Mexico border to address a surge of unaccompanied minors, as 12 Republican members of Congress arrived in El Paso to learn more about what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is describing as a humanitarian crisis.
Abbott in a several paragraph statement Monday said he was putting the president on notice for the humanitarian crisis he created at the border by reversing Trump-era policies.
âTexas is putting President Biden on notice that his policies are risking the health and safety of Texans and putting children at risk from cartels and human traffickers, he said.
The U.S. Border Patrol is only supposed to detain children entering the country without documentation for up to three days, but the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has nearly run out of space to put unaccompanied children picked up at the border, leaving them in the agency’s custody even longer.
As first reported by The Associated Press on Monday, Health and Human Services is swiftly trying to open facilities across the country to house these children in. One of those will be Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, according to a memo sent to City Council on Monday. Health and Human Services staff did not respond for comment.
Social workers are needed to deal with a record number of unaccompanied migrant children, said Ruben Villarreal, former GOP mayor of a Texas border town.