Biden Ends Trump Policy That Allows DHS to Deport Caregivers for Migrant Children
A child sits with his family in an isolation area after he tested positive for Covid-19, according to his mother who also tested positive, after their arrival to the U.S. 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. John Moore/Getty Images

President Joe Biden has been undoing many of the Trump-era immigration policies, such as halting the border wall's construction and suspending the "Remain in Mexico" program.

Now, the Biden administration will end another policy from the Trump administration that lets U.S. border agents collect details on the immigration status of people who are coming forward to care for unaccompanied migrant children so it could potentially deport them, CNBC reported.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) departments said in a statement on Friday that they would end the 2018 agreement, which allowed the border agents to identify and deport those would-be caregivers who were in the country illegally.

That means that immigrant parents who came to the U.S. and then later sent for their children to cross the border will face possible deportation when they tried to pick up their kids from HHS' custody.

The administration officials said they would replace the 2018 policy with a new memorandum that promotes the safe and timely transfer of migrant children.

The officials noted that the new agreement would not change safeguards designed to ensure unaccompanied migrant children are unified with properly vetted sponsors who can safely care for them while they await immigration proceedings.

They noted that the 2018 policy created a "chilling effect" that discouraged family members and sponsors from coming forward as they fear they would be deported.

"Whatever we can do to encourage those family members and sponsors to come forward more quickly we need to be doing," an official said as CNBC reported. The move comes amid the surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border.

Migrant Children

The influx of migrant children crossing the border leaves the Biden administration struggling to find proper care and housing for them.

The latest statistics released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday showed that border agents encountered around 3,500 migrants a day last February, which is a 28 percent increase over January.

According to an NPR report, the number of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America also surged to 60 percent over January to more than 9,400.

Officials said that increase in migrants crossing the border was due to natural disasters, food shortages, and poverty in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Trying to house and care for all the migrant children coming to the U.S. has some legal, space, and cost constraints.

Federal health officials are mandated to provide housing for any unaccompanied migrant children until they can be placed with a parent or a sponsor, as stated under U.S. law. However, officials have limited bed space in state-licensed to comply with their job mandate, Reuters reported.

Roberta Jacobson, Biden's border czar, and the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday the jumpstart of the Central American Minors program, which had allowed children to apply in their home countries and join relatives in the U.S. This was ended under the Trump administration.

Officials will need to expand emergency housing and open more licensed facilities if the number of children arriving in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian continues to increase.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said they are focusing on speeding up the children's release to their sponsors. However, HHS officials said that speeding up the process of finding sponsors for the migrant children might be taken advantage of by some people, such as the cases in 2013 and 2014 when some Guatemalan teenagers were released and were forced to work on an egg farm in Ohio.

"We need to take the time to vet the individuals who these kids are being connected with," Psaki was quoted in a report. The press secretary added that they are trying to figure out how to expedite the process.

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