An internal Department of Homeland Security document leaked to Axios shows that 823 unaccompanied migrant children have been held in border patrol custody for over 10 days — more than a fourfold increase over the past week.
Why this matters: These facilities aren’t meant to house kids for more than three days, but the recent surge of children at the southern border has overwhelmed the Biden administration’s capacity to handle them.
Details: The maximum amount of time a child is legally supposed to be held in border patrol custody is 72 hours. But as of Saturday, 3,314 unaccompanied children had been in custody longer, with 2,226 for more than five days and 823 for more than 10 days.
- The document, with figures updated through Saturday, shows how the Biden administration is struggling to manage the volume of child migrants.
- The trend is accelerating. On last Monday, only 185 migrant children were being held in border patrol custody for more than 10 days.
The big picture: President Biden is telling migrants not to try to cross the border but Biden has chosen not to use an emergency order to turn away kids at the border, as was done under the Trump administration. The surge shows no sign of abating.