{"id":95120,"date":"2021-03-26T13:50:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T13:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=47e5e38f28475d4c6e0d0e5a2b78c036"},"modified":"2021-03-26T13:50:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T13:50:26","slug":"complexities-at-the-border-are-lost-as-media-gop-paint-situation-as-a-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/26\/complexities-at-the-border-are-lost-as-media-gop-paint-situation-as-a-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Complexities at the Border Are Lost as Media, GOP Paint Situation as a \u201cSurge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Photos<\/a>

As corporate media and Republicans paint the influx of unaccompanied children on the U.S.-Mexico border as a \u201ccrisis\u201d and \u201csurge,\u201d advocates and attorneys tell Truthout <\/em>that legal and logistical complexities are being lost in these distorted portrayals.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration, they say, faces the challenges of inheriting an asylum system that former President Donald Trump systematically dismantled, in addition to those posed by the ongoing global pandemic.<\/p>\n

The increase in crossings is happening in part because 70,000 asylum seekers were already in line, stuck in Mexico after being forced to wait there under Trump\u2019s restrictive Migrant Protection Protocols, according to advocates. The situation is not quite a \u201csurge,\u201d they point out, but a regular seasonal influx of asylum-seeking children bolstered<\/a> by a backlog of demand because of last year\u2019s COVID-19 border closure.<\/p>\n

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded a 28 percent increase<\/a> in migrants apprehended from January to February 2021, from 78,442 to 100,441. But CBP\u2019s own numbers show that undocumented immigration tends to spike in the spring. While last year\u2019s number were down, due to the pandemic, fiscal year 2019 saw total apprehensions increase 31 percent during the same period \u2014 a bigger rise than we saw this February.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the numbers aren\u2019t high. While the increase in apprehensions began during the final months of the Trump administration, the numbers are on track to reach a level not seen in 20 years, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Biden administration needs to be moving faster, immigrant rights advocates say, to make critical changes to the asylum system that would allow the administration to release more kids held in CBP, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camps and facilities in Donna, Carrizo Springs, Dallas and other sites throughout Texas.<\/p>\n

Such changes, they say, are also necessary to alleviate a public relations disaster as the Biden administration scrambles to find bed space for the rising number of children crossing the border and blocks press from accessing CBP camps. A number of media outlets have published photos released<\/a> by Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar revealing crowded conditions for immigrant and refugee children at the camps.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Border Patrol overflow facility in Donna, Texas.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of Rep. Henry Cuellar<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During a press conference Thursday, President Joe Biden said officials are working to open more facilities for children currently being processed, and move them more swiftly into homes. He also said he would grant media access to the facilities but declined to give an exact date.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, what\u2019s happening is we\u2019re getting back online from a system that was completely trashed by Trump,\u201d says Austin-based immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a \u2018surge\u2019 on the border, what we have is a legal system that is getting online after it got completely blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n