US

CDC Allows Child Migrant Facilities To Operate At 100% Capacity

(Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Kaylee Greenlee Immigration and Extremism Reporter
Font Size:

Facilities housing migrant children will be allowed to operate at full capacity despite previous COVID-19 restrictions as border crossings continue to rise, a Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) memo first reported by CNN granted permission for facilities managed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to operate at full capacity as the number of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. continues to rise.

“Today based on CDC guidance, ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] has notified facilities they may temporarily reactivate capacity within their full licensed capability up to safe occupancy levels. The same instruction applies to influx facilities up to what ORR and the contractor determine to be safe for influx,” a spokesperson for the HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) told the DCNF.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 26: Central American asylum seekers arrive to a bus station after being released by U.S. Border Patrol agents on February 26, 2021 in Brownsville, Texas. U.S. immigration authorities are now releasing many asylum seeking families after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border and are taken into custody. The immigrant families are then free to travel to destinations throughout the U.S. while awaiting asylum hearings. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Central American asylum seekers arrive to a bus station after being released by U.S. Border Patrol agents. (John Moore/Getty Images)

HHS “may temporarily increase capacity to full licensed capacity” though “reactivating beds must be done in a way that maintains a safe and healthy environment for UC and staff,” the ACF spokesperson told the DCNF. HHS facilities are safer for children than Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stations, according to the spokesperson.

A memo drafted on CDC letterhead reportedly said “facilities should plan for and expect to have COVID-19 cases,” according to CNN. Currently, the “only available options” for holding unaccompanied children are “prolonged stays at (Customs & Border Protection) facilities operating significantly above COVID-19 capacities,” the memo says, CNN reported.

The number of unaccompanied migrants held in CBP custody was down to “a handful” before the 2020 presidential election, former CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan told the DCNF.

“HHS is already overwhelmed” by the increasing number of unaccompanied minors, and more than 2,000 migrant children are currently in CBP custody, Morgan said.

“This is back to the crisis level numbers we had in 2019. The Biden administration knew when they shut down Title 42 for UAC’s [unaccompanied children] that it would increase the numbers and that’s exactly what we’re seeing, so now not only are UAC’s backing up Border Patrol facilities but their time in custody is increasing,” Morgan said.

Internal documents show CBP has housed migrant children for more than 72 hours, the maximum length of time children can be legally held by CBP before being transferred to HHS facilities, CNN reported earlier this week.

Around 11% of unaccompanied minors tested positive for COVID-19 before the inauguration, according to Morgan. “This was the whole reason that we were not letting people into the country during a global pandemic and this administration has said ‘nope, don’t care.”

“I think you’re going to see the unaccompanied minor numbers well in excess of 9,000 in February,” Morgan said. “So we’re right back where we were at the height of the crisis in 2019.”

Over 300 unaccompanied minors are being referred to HHS facilities daily and an expected 20,000 beds will be needed to accommodate the migrants, CNN reported. (RELATED: Biden’s Child Detention Centers Are Now Bursting At The Seams)

“At this time, CBP does not have adequate space for physical distancing, quarantine of persons exposed to COVID-19 or isolation of ill or infected persons,” the memo said, CNN reported.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel