They are El Salvador. Honduras. and Guatemala. A large number of migrants from these countries are families. Some of them are unaccompanied children. Some of those unaccompanied children are as young as 4. 5 and 6 years old. Let me be clear. These children and these families are not slipping past our borders unprotected. They are being apprehended in large numbers by the Border Patrol almost as soon as they touch U.S. soil. Some of them. many of them actually. turn themselves in voluntarily to our Border Patrol. Although the influx has slowed in recent weeks. the sheer number of children and families coming across our southern border in South Texas earlier this summer overwhelmed the Border Patroloverwhelmed Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies. The administration and Secretary Jeh Johnson. Secretary of Department of Homeland Security. have responded to this situation with what I will describe as an "all hands on deck" approach. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is coordinating the DHSwide response to the problem. The Department of Defense has provided space on some of its military installations to house unaccompanied minors until Health and Human Services can find a placement for them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has greatly expanded its ability to detain and remove families. and we have surged Border Patrol agents. immigration judges. and other personnel to the border to help process these people. These measures have been working. For example. the amount of time people are detained before they are removed has decreased significantly in recent weeks. but these emergency measures are expensive and none of the Federal agencies involved have the money they need to sustain the aggressive steps they are taking to deal with this situation.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration migrants Border Patrol