White House Calls on FEMA to Help Process Solo, Undocumented Children at the Mexico Border

By Kimberly James; WBAP and KLIF, Dallas, Texas.ASSOCIATED PRESS; CBS NEWS – WBAP/KLIF – The White House is calling on the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help to care for and process record numbers of undocumented children arriving at the border seeking asylum.FEMA will help for the next three months in this mandate; receiving, sheltering and transferring young children who arrive alone at the border with Mexico.A growing crisis is underway with hundreds of unaccompanied children sent up alone to seek asylumin the United States.   During the month of February, nearly 9,500 hundred minors entered the U.S.; this week the number of children held in border patrol custody has averaged more than 3,000.  Processing the children, and placing them in the united states with family or sponsors is a pace that cannot be rushed, or accomplished at current flow.As a result, more and more children as a result are being held beyond the 72 hours allowed by federal law, held in holding units designed for adults, and now sorely overcrowded.  This problem also faced the Obama administration, which likewise turned to FEMA for help; it responded by constructing new stations for children which included tents set up at military basesPresident Joe Biden has ended the practice of former President Donald Trump’s expelling of the children who cross the border solo, but Biden is maintaining the practice of expelling immigrant families and single adults.Department of Human Services attributes the rise in border crossing to back to back hurricanes that devastated much of Central America, and certainly Honduras, hardest hit and decades from recovery, as well as food insecurity, violence, and poverty.(Copyright, All Rights Reserved, WBAP/KLIF 2021)