The government is paying travel costs for sponsors trying to pick up migrant children from shelters, amid the surge of unaccompanied children seeking asylum at the border.
The policy underscores the White House’s urgency to get the children out of beleaguered and overcrowded shelters, according to Axios.
About 275 minor migrants have been arriving at the southern border from Central America everyday, and about 20,000 are reportedly in federal custody. The US is not turning them away for humanitarian reasons.
Minors play soccer at a small field at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility in Texas. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesThe new transportation expense policy was updated on March 22, as the Department of Health and Human Services continues to struggle to get children out of federal custody, according to the report.
Paying for sponsors to get to the border is a “normal part of the unaccompanied children program’s operations,” Administration for Children and Families officials told Axios.
The move is a financially sound decision, given that it costs $775 a day to house a child, Mark Greenberg, a former HHS official who oversaw the child migrant program under President Obama, told the outlet.
Minors who tested positive for COVID-19 seen at the Donna DHS holding facility in Texas. POOL/AFP via Getty Images