The Biden administration on Saturday moved to expand the government’s capacity to house migrant children as it scrambles to respond to a sharp increase in border crossings of unaccompanied minors, according to an internal memo obtained by CBS News.
State-licensed U.S. shelters and foster homes for migrant children were directed to “review their ability to open up additional beds” by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) branch responsible for housing unaccompanied minors.
According to the refugee office’s memo, the primary objective of reactivating bed space is to prevent unaccompanied children from staying for prolonged periods of time in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding facilities, most of which were built to detain adult migrants for short periods of time.