Consider This from NPR - What's Behind The Increase In Migrant Children At The Southern Border

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Thousands of unaccompanied migrant children have shown up at the southern border in recent weeks, overwhelming the government's ability to process and transfer them into the custody of sponsors or family members. Melissa Lopez, director of Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc, tells NPR what the situations looks like from her vantage point in El Paso. Mark Greenberg, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, explains why COVID-19 protocols are making it even harder for the government to handle the increase in migrants at the border. In participating regions, you'll also hear from local journalists about what's happening in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all on the web at theschmidt.org. The mission of FEMA, that's the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is disaster recovery. And this week, the Biden administration dispatched that agency to the southern border. So does that mean what's happening there is a disaster? Clearly, the numbers are enormous. This is a big challenge. And it certainly is a reflection of using every lever of the federal government to help address that.

On Monday at the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki wasn't interested in labels, but many are calling the situation on the border a crisis. Over the past months, thousands of unaccompanied minors have arrived there, overwhelming the government's ability to process and transfer them to sponsors, usually family members. Many are being held in jail cells or child shelters, and some of those are little more than emergency tent facilities. The federal government plans to move thousands of migrant teenagers out of overcrowded border facilities to North Texas. FEMA will now help transfer some of them to a convention center in Dallas. The challenge here is that there are not that many options.

So the options are, and we have a lot of critics, but many of them are not putting forward a lot of solutions. Jen Psaki at the White House said yes, the Biden administration promised a more humane immigration policy. But she also said basically they've been in power for two months. They need more time. The options here are send the kids back on the journey, send them to unvetted homes, or work to expedite moving them into shelters where they can get treatment by medical doctors, educational resources, legal counseling, mental health counseling. That's exactly what we're focused on doing. And this is an across the administration.

Consider this. During the short time Joe Biden has been in office, there's been a significant increase in the number of children showing up at the border alone. We'll explain why. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Tuesday, March 16th. This message comes from NPR sponsor 3M, who is using science and innovation to help the world respond to COVID-19. 3M plants are running around the clock, producing more than 95 million respirators per month in the U.S. In addition, 3M has also maximized production of other solutions,

including biopharma filtration, hand sanitizers, and disinfectants. Learn more at 3M.com slash COVID. 3M science applied to life. How do we reinvent ourselves? And what's the secret to living longer? I'm Manoush Zomorodi. Each week on NPR's TED Radio Hour, we go on a journey with TED speakers to seek a deeper understanding of the world and to figure out new ways to think and create. Listen now. It's Consider This from NPR. The situation on the border has been getting worse over the last few months. Border Patrol recently announced a nearly 30 percent increase in border crossings during the month of February.

Thank you very much, Jen, and good morning, everyone. By March 1st, the situation was serious enough that the Biden administration's new Homeland Security Director, Alejandro Mayorkas, made it the top issue of his first White House press conference. To put it succinctly, the prior administration dismantled our nation's immigration system in its entirety. Mayorkas said the Trump administration left the government without adequate facilities to house migrants and without personnel, policies, or procedures to do so safely. He also blamed the Trump administration for ending aid to Central American countries, aid designed to make life safer there.

It takes time to rebuild an entire system and to process individuals at the border in a safe and just way. It takes time to build out of the depths of cruelty that the administration before us established. Republicans, including those from a congressional delegation that traveled to the southern border this week, say President Biden's promise of a different philosophy at the border is what's driving the recent increase. And it's true that Central Americans have heard, rightly or wrongly, that things are looser at the border now. And smugglers, reportedly, have told migrants that the administration will welcome them.

The idea that a more humane policy would be in place definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, to spread disinformation about what was now possible. We know that. Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, a special assistant to the president who previously served as a U.S. envoy to Mexico, spoke at the White House last week, and she said that smugglers are using the administration's message of a more humane treatment of migrants to sell migrants on a simple promise. The border is open. The border is not open. Jacobson said the U.S. is trying to convey something more nuanced. Things will be better

in the future, but please don't come now. We're relying on every means we can to get that message out there, and that leads me to want to reiterate, as I did before, that the border is closed. Reporters asked Jacobson if the White House was sending a mixed message. I think when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now. And that is what we're trying to do. And I will certainly agree that we are trying to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Another thing contributing to the increase in children at the border, something called Title 42, a Trump administration order that all migrants who came to the border seeking asylum be expelled to Mexico without any kind of hearing. That rule is still in place for families and adults. The Biden administration says in the midst of a pandemic, it's an important public health measure to prevent overcrowding at U.S. facilities. But the Biden administration did rescind the rules when it comes to unaccompanied children, which means now they're being allowed into the country. And that's where many of them

will eventually come into contact with a person like Melissa Lopez. She's director of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services that's in El Paso, Texas. The reality is, is that a lot of these children are still stuck at the border. Lopez told NPR that groups like hers can't do much to help until the children reach their shelters. She spoke to NPR's Elsa Chang. We're anxiously waiting for them. And, you know, a little bit, you know, well, a lot concerned about the conditions that the children might be in in these border patrol holding facilities and these temporary shelters that have been set up. They're obviously not ideal conditions for children. And so we would much prefer that they be in the regular or our shelters. Well, with respect to the current surge in

migrants, especially unaccompanied minors, how would you assess the Biden administration's efforts in handling the situation right now? You know, it's really tough. I think under the Biden administration, I think unfortunately they were so laser focused on the migrant protection protocols or remain in Mexico and making sure that those asylum seekers could enter the United States as quickly as possible, that I don't think that they saw the surge of immigrant children coming. And so I think there was a focus on a different population. But I am really happy to see that additional resources are being put into the need for migrant children to be in a safe place. Again, I'm not advocating for these temporary shelters along the border, but the more quickly that children can be tested for COVID to make sure that they, you know,

can safely go into a shelter or could be returned and reunified with their family. I think that that's really important. So I hope that the help that's being requested from FEMA will ensure that the children won't languish in these temporary shelters for long at all. Well, speaking of these temporary shelters, the Associated Press is reporting that the Dallas Convention Center will be used to hold something like 3,000 teenagers. What do you think of that plan? I mean, that's a huge number of children all in one place. I mean, that's a huge number of children all in one place. I mean, there's a lot of things that run through my mind. One, will the needs of those children be met?

How do you ensure safety, not just physical safety, but also medical safety, given that we're still in the middle of a pandemic? I have great trust in our legal partners throughout the state and their ability to serve and make sure that the children in these facilities have their legal needs met. And I have no doubt that my colleagues will, you know, fight to make sure that they have access and ensure to the best of their ability that these children receive the absolute best care. Melissa Lopez, Director of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, Texas. There are a few exceptions at the border right now.

Customs and Border Patrol confirms it's allowing in some humanitarian cases. Migrants on the border have told NPR that, for instance, pregnant women who cross illegally are allowed to stay. Still, the vast majority of adults and even families with small children are being sent to Mexico. Only children traveling alone are being led into the U.S. Where services are provided to them and there's an effort to get them to family members so that they can live in the country while they're having their immigration cases heard. Mark Greenberg is a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute focused on immigration issues affecting families

and children. He also served in the Obama administration. He told NPR this week that public health measures are also making a tough situation more difficult at the border. Greenberg spoke to NPR's Michelle Martin. The thing that is making the situation, I think, particularly challenging for the administration is that the Trump administration had actually built up a significant number of shelter beds to be available for arriving children,

but large numbers of those beds aren't available now because of the situation with the pandemic. And why aren't those shelter beds available? Because there's a need to keep them more distant? There needs to be more space between the beds? Or why is it that those shelter beds aren't available? It's a combination of factors. And the reasons for that include state and local requirements during the pandemic, CDC guidelines, and the fact that sometimes staff members have been absent because they are sick. So all of those factors taken together significantly reduced the number of beds that were actually available for arriving children. So is there something that this administration could have done differently? I mean, recognizing that they've only been in office for under two months?

There really was no simple solution here. I think it was broadly recognized that if government stopped expelling children at the border, that more children were going to come in. The challenge that the new administration faced is that they appear to be doing anything they can think of to increase the number of beds right now and to increase the available shelters for the children. But it's the kind of thing that just can't be done by flicking the switch. And they are, I think, struggling with the challenges of the numbers of arriving children as against beds and shelters that are available for them.

So what would a fixed system look like when it comes to receiving and housing young, unaccompanied migrants. Is there a fix? So there are longer-term issues and shorter-term, more immediate ones. The longer-term issue is really helping the Central American countries in dealing with crime and violence and poverty and ways in which the structure of services in their countries could be strengthened. In the short run, it is really the challenge right now of finding ways to expand available shelter facilities for arriving children. And then once children are in the facilities, there's a process of figuring out if they have a parent or relative or someone else they can live with. That involves what's referred to as a vetting process to be sure that this will be someone who would be safe and

appropriate to live with. And there are things that can be done to speed that process, but it's also really important to not cut corners in ways that potentially lead to bad decisions and put children at greater risk. Mark Greenberg with the Migration Policy Institute. By the way, the Biden administration says it will soon suspend social distancing measures inside permanent child shelters so those shelters can house more children.

Additional reporting in this episode from NPR's John Burnett and Joel Rose. It's Consider This. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, Cornish. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org.