U.S. shelters received a record 122,000 unaccompanied migrant children in 2021:
The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) shelter system received 122,000 migrant children who were taken into U.S. custody without their parents in fiscal year 2021, an all-time high that shattered previous records, according to new government figures obtained by CBS News.
In fiscal years 2016 and 2019, when the previous records were set, HHS received 59,000 and 69,000 unaccompanied migrant children, respectively, historical government statistics show. During a six-month period starting this March, more than 92,000 unaccompanied minors were transferred to HHS.
The record number of shelter transfers was fueled by the unprecedented arrival of 147,000 unaccompanied children to the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021, which ended in October.
This year's historic child migration wave, which initially peaked in March before reaching a new all-time high in July, posed major logistical, humanitarian and political challenges for the Biden administration, which has declined to use a COVID-19 policy started under former President Donald Trump to expel unaccompanied minors.
"The program faced an unprecedented challenge at the beginning of this year," a senior official at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the HHS agency that cares for unaccompanied children, told CBS News on Wednesday.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal plans, said HHS is preparing for another potential sharp increase in arrivals of migrant children next year by expanding capacity at traditional shelters and identifying two sites in New Mexico and North Carolina that could be converted into emergency housing facilities. --->READ MORE HERE
122K migrant kids reportedly held in US custody over 12-month period:
The US government took in 122,000 unaccompanied migrant children during the 12 months ending Sept. 30 of this year, shattering the previous record of 69,000, CBS News reported Thursday.
Government figures obtained by the outlet also show that 92,000 kids were placed in the Department of Health and Human Services’ shelter system between March and September alone.
Around 147,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the US-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year, another record-breaking number, CBS reported.
The children typically remain at the HHS shelters until officials find an adult in the US to whom they can be released.
According to the outlet, the waves of kids crossing the border without their parents peaked in March and then again in July, posing challenges for the Biden administration as it tried to figure out how to safely house the children amid the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping campaign promises to roll back the hardline policies of the Trump administration. --->READ MORE HERE
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