The massive influx of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States has caused a backlog of minors, who are being held longer than is legally allowed, according to a new report.
The Washington Post reported Thursday the average time illegal alien minors are being held at U.S. Border Patrol facilities along America's southern border is four days — one day longer than the 72-hour window dictated by federal law.
Some minors are being held for a week as immigration officials scramble to deal with the thousands of migrants who illegally enter the U.S. every day.
"I don't have any beds, because we're meant to be short-term processing — not even holding," an unnamed Customs and Border Protection official in the Rio Grande Valley told the Post. "I have stools and benches, but I have no beds. . . . Our facilities are not built for long-term holding, and they're certainly not built to house children for very long at all."
The situation has led to children sleeping on whatever they can find inside Border Patrol facilities, including floors.
Migrant children are turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services once they are processed by Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, but the thousands of daily arrivals have created a logjam. Immigration officials are constantly behind in getting everyone through the processing phase.
"It's a daily battle," a Border Patrol agent told the Post. "You catch a thousand people a day, and then you can only process 750 a day. The agents are working their tails off trying to get this squared away, but it's a daily struggle with the amount of people we're encountering."
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said last weekend he is concerned about the overcrowding at border facilities. Other lawmakers have echoed that remark, while the Trump administration is trying to use money gained via an emergency declaration to build more sections of border barrier.
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