After border visit, NY Rep. Espaillat says Biden must ‘break down’ bureaucracy keeping migrant kids detained
New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat called on the Biden administration Wednesday to “break down” a slow-moving bureaucracy that keeps migrant children locked in detention facilities for weeks even though they have family in the U.S.
Espaillat — himself undocumented for a time after immigrating to New York City from the Dominican Republic in the 1960s — made the plea for reform after joining other House Democrats in touring a Texas detention center holding mostly Central American children apprehended after crossing the southern border.
Espaillat told the Daily News some of the children he spoke with had been there for more than two weeks.
“That’s a problem,” said Espaillat, who represents a district that includes upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. “We have to work harder and break down the bureaucracies that are keeping them from reuniting with their families.”
The teenage children held at the facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, that Espaillat toured is managed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
It’s the type of facility to which underage migrants are transferred after being detained by the Border Patrol if the government can’t immediately find relatives — or “sponsors” — they can stay with in the U.S. while seeking asylum or other legal status.
But Espaillat said migrants he spoke with have relatives in the U.S.
“They have family members and people that they know across the country,” he said. “They need to be reunited with their families as quickly as possible.”
Still, Espaillat said the facility he toured was in far better condition than a detention center he visited during the Trump administration.
“The culture, the atmosphere with the Trump administration — it was very punitive, harsh and inhumane,” he said. “A cell I went to during the Trump administration, it was cold, there were no supplies.”
“Here, they have medical services, we went to their sleeping area, there was a mess hall. A lot of them were playing soccer,” he said.
Wednesday’s tour comes as the Biden administration faces increased scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats over its handling of a surge in migrants at the U.S. southern border. Most are coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and are fleeing poverty, gang violence and persecution.
But Republicans claim the Biden administration is being too compassionate by allowing unaccompanied migrant children to stay while seeking permanent status. Some Democrats, meantime, say the administration is not compassionate enough — keeping a Trump-era order in place barring adult migrants because of COVID-19 concerns.
