The Biden Administration is turning ICE long-term detention facilities for migrant families into rapid-processing reception and release centers. The re-designated hubs will move migrant families more quickly from the border region into the U.S. interior.
ICE officials told immigration advocates and relief organizations they are ending long-term detention of migrant families, the San Antonio Express-News reported last week. The facilities will be “rebranded” as “reception centers,” the ICE officials stated.
The plan by Biden officials is to convert the long-term family detention centers in South Texas into “Ellis Island-style rapid-processing hubs” with a stated goal of releasing migrant families into the U.S. interior within 72 hours, the Washington Post revealed .
Russel Holt, a senior ICE official told staff members in an email reported by the Post that unaccompanied minors and families this year “are expected to be the highest numbers observed in over 20 years.”
Holt acknowledged that even with this aggressive catch and release program, ICE facilities still may not be able to keep up with the flow of migrant families and unaccompanied minors. He said hotels will be utilized if processing hubs are filled beyond capacity.
Due to policy changes put in place by President Joe Biden, the surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors continues to grow at an uncontrollable rate.
“We’re apprehending more kids than we can release,” a senior Homeland Security official told CNN.
A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official added, “We’re not keeping up.”
In January, the apprehension of Unaccompanied Alien Children also jumped in all nine southwest border sectors, Breitbart Texas reported . The Del Rio and Big Bend Sectors witnessed triple-digit percentage increases. More significantly, the Rio Grande Valley sector, the nation’s busiest sector, jumped from 4,215 unaccompanied children to 7,295 — an increase of 73 percent.
CNN reports that on Tuesday alone, Border Patrol facilities held more than 1,300 children while waiting for transfer to HHS officials. This was up by 300 from Monday.
Many of these minors are being held beyond the 72-hour limit imposed by a court in the Flores Settlement Agreement.
The CNN article confirms an exclusive report from Breitbart Texas’ Randy Clark on March 2 discussing the overcrowding of Border Patrol and Health and Human Services facilities who are unable to keep up with the growing numbers of migrant children.
Clark wrote:
Despite efforts by the Border Patrol to transfer the UAC’s into suitable Health and Human Services (HHS) shelters, the minors are not being accepted by HHS in a timely manner — running contrary to current legal requirements. Delays in the transfer of the migrant children in many cases exceed the legal limit of 72 hours.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team . He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX , Parler @BobPrice , and Facebook.
10K Migrants Apprehended in One Week in Single Texas Border Sector, Says Democrat Congressman Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Rio Grande Valley Sector 2:55
U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) reported the apprehension of approximately 10,000 migrants in the last seven days in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. He said agents apprehended 2,500 in the past two days alone.
“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” Congressman Cuellar said in a written statement. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”
The Laredo congressman said the illegal border crossings are “potentially exposing border communities to the coronavirus and putting us at risk. Right now, none of the migrants are being tested for COVID-19 by Border Patrol.”
In Brownsville, Texas, city officials said that six percent of the migrants being released at the bus station to obtain transportation into the U.S. interior are testing positive for COVID-19, Breitbart Texas reported . The Brownsville official said they do not have the authority to prevent those who test positive from boarding buses to travel into the U.S. interior. A worker at the bus station told Fox News they cannot ask passengers for proof of coronavirus test results before transit.
Cuellar added, “I urge the Biden Administration to listen and work with the communities on the southern border who are dealing with the surge of migrants.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbot said President Joe Biden is “recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities,” Breitbart News reported .
“The Biden Administration was spreading COVID in South Texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining, people who had come across the border illegally,” the governor said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” morning news show. The Biden Administration was exposing Texans to COVID — that is a Neanderthal-type approach to dealing with the COVID situation.”
The Texas governor went on to say President Biden is engaging in a “Neanderthal-type approach” by releasing the COVID-positive migrants into the state of Texas. Abbott’s comment followed Biden’s accusation that Texas was engaged in “Neanderthal thinking” after the governor announced the lifting of the COVID mask mandate and opened Texas businesses 100 percent.
Official migrant apprehension numbers for February are expected to be released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the next few days.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team . He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX , Parler @BobPrice , and Facebook.
1600 Migrants Arrested over Three Days in Single Texas Border Sector File Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Del Rio Sector Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents arrested more than 1,600 migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico into Texas during a three-day span. During that period, the agents also arrested a previously deported rapist.
Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero tweets that his agents arrested more than 1,600 migrants who illegally crossed the border during the last three days of February.
The arrests came in connection to more than 25 human smuggling interdictions, Chief Skero wrote. Most of the migrants arrested were single adults. He did not disclose the nationalities of the arrested migrants. Approximately half of the more than 1,600 arrests occurred in the Eagle Pass area, an official told Breitbart Texas in response to an inquiry.
Skero stated they arrested two criminal aliens in the groups.
One of those, 49-year-old Roman Gonzalez-Florez, is a previously deported rapist.
Uvalde Station Border Patrol agents encountered Gonzalez-Flores shortly after he crossed the border from Mexico on February 27, Del Rio Sector officials stated. During processing, agents identified the Mexican national as having been convicted by a Kentucky court for third-degree rape in 2004. The court sentenced him to two years in state prison.
Officials indicated he had previously been deported from the United States following his conviction. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations officers removed the Mexican national most recently earlier this year.
He now faces federal felony charges for illegal re-entry after removal as a convicted sex offender. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison before being deported again.
Del Rio Sector officials report their agents arrested “56 illegal immigrants with prior sexual assault convictions” during the first five months of Fiscal Year 2021, which began on October 1, 2020.
“Our agents arrested two more sex offenders over the weekend, one of whom was convicted of third-degree rape in Kentucky,” Chief Skero said in a written statement. “This is why it is critically important that Border Patrol Agents are out there, on the border, identifying everyone who crosses our borders illegally.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team . He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX , Parler @BobPrice , and Facebook.
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