15 May Biden Lashes Out at HHS for Making Migrant Children Stay on Buses for Several Days
Recent reports show that some migrant children were forced to stay overnight on board buses while they were waiting to be relocated with their sponsor/guardian away from the border. According to the sources, these children ate and used toilets on the buses.
While vowing to examine “what went wrong?” or “how did this possibly happen?”, Jen Psaki, Biden’s Press Secretary, stated that keeping children overnight on buses that lack basic facilities is outrageous and will be dealt with.
Tensions between White House and Health and Human Services (HHS) were also reported after Biden, reportedly, lashed out at HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra over his handling of minor illegal immigrants.
After US President Joe Biden refused to use Trump-era policy for handling unaccompanied migrant children, the number of minors found at the border crossed a 20-year record.
In March, a record-breaking count of 19,000 migrant children was recorded. When the numbers went down to 17,200 in April, all children were sent to HHS facilities.
Currently, 20,000 illegal minors are living in HHS facilities. According to various sources, these children are being housed in more than 200 sites in different states.
While talking about the children on buses, Jen Psaki said, “There’s no excuse for this kind of treatment.” She also stated that the consequences can’t be predicted until the investigations are over.
According to the Dallas Morning News, a 15-year-old boy from Honduras had to stay on the bus from Saturday to Wednesday. After spending 5 days on a bus, the bus was finally departed to cover a 2000-mile long journey to Seattle.
A bus company owner also said that while some children were left on buses for just a few hours, some had to stay for more than 2 days on the bus. Moreover, the busses were often littered and had overflowing toilets. Although the HHS is required to take custody of these immigrant children after their first 72 hours in the nation, Xavier Becerra said this was highly unacceptable.
While the number of migrant children has dropped drastically, there are still a large number of unaccounted minors waiting to be relocated with their sponsors.
SOURCES- BBC, Fox News
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