US records record number of minors in migrant shelters in one year

Almost 130,000 migrant children were welcomed into US shelters during fiscal year 2022, a milestone that surpasses the previous record of more than 122,000 registered in 2021 and reflects the high number of unaccompanied minors who have arrived at the US southern border in recent years. months, revealed this Thursday the television station CBSNews.

The data, consulted by CBS in internal federal documents, corresponds to children who arrive without an adult guardian on US territory and enter the system of government shelters of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, for its acronym in English), in mostly from Central American countries.

These record numbers they have posed challenges to the Joe Biden Administration, which has had to deal with overflowing shelters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

By law, the US government must keep children in shelters until they turn 18 or an adult, usually a family member, takes responsibility for them.

“They are children who flee from violence, they are children who flee from fear and death and in this I ask the community for all the love and understanding possible,” he explained to the voice of americathe Argentine priest Fabián Arias, pastor of the San Pedro church in New York who provides help to migrant children assuming their legal custody.

As guardian, Arias’s intention is that his “legal children” have “promptly their benefits and all their rights to be able to live with dignity.”

political crises and economy in the regioncoupled with the effects of COVID-19, have influenced the record numbers of migrants arriving in the US.

The last two years report the most notable increase. US border patrols recorded contact with more than 2 million migrants in 2022 and 1.6 million in 2021, a dramatic spike from previous reports of 405,036 (2020), 859,501 (2019), and 404,142 (2018).

In an attempt to curb this spike, the Biden Administration has recently imposed several measures, including the controversial visa program for Venezuelans that will return those who try to enter by land or sea without the required documentation.

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