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As Montoya-Galvez reports, the reality on the ground quickly disproves the administration’s claim. “The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which contracts the shelter operators, has 13,000 beds for migrant children, but says it can only use 8,700 due to COVID policies,” he tweeted. “The office has 3,500+ minors in its custody, up from a decade-low in the summer but well below historic highs.”
But the administration has used a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order to quickly expel unaccompanied children without an immigration hearing, and in violation of anti-trafficking law. That baseless policy was pushed by Stephen Miller, and against the wishes of public health experts. While a court has since blocked that policy, border officials have admitted to expelling dozens of children in violation of the order. The facility contractors disagree with that policy as well, Montoya-Galvez continues.
“Four shelter officials, who requested anonymity because they’re restricted from speaking publicly about their work with the government, told CBS News they don’t believe expelling migrant children with little or no due process is the only way to contain the coronavirus,” the report continues. “The legal protections for migrant children could be upheld while taking COVID-19 precautions, the shelter operators said.”
“ORR should right now be working to accommodate children’s rights and safety,” one unnamed contractor told CBS News, “looking at how they can reconfigure and utilize their existing shelter system and doing what they can now to improve the efficiency of releasing kids to families and sponsors, safely.”
If this weren’t such a serious subject it would almost be laughable that the administration—this administration—is now claiming COVID-19 concerns when it ignored calls from public health experts and immigrant rights advocates to empty out adult detention camps to mitigate the virus. Leading advocacy group Detention Watch Network said ICE’s actions in fact “contributed to the spread of COVID-19 throughout the country. We estimate that ICE detention activities were linked to an additional 245,581 cases from May 1st to August 1st.”
The administration is also, unsurprisingly, spewing tired, right-wing talking points about the southern border as President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office in just over 30 days. American Immigration Council policy counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick called out acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan’s claim that the number of families and unaccompanied children asking for safety at the border could make the 2019 numbers “pale in comparison.”
“Pure hogwash,” Reichlin-Melnick tweeted. “In November 2018, a total of 30,421 parents and children were apprehended at the border. Last month, it was 8,588.” He said “[t]here is NO evidence at this moment that there are rapidly rising numbers of families and unaccompanied children seeking protections at the border. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen next year. But it is not happening now.”
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