US to Prepare 19,000 Beds for Migrant Children

The United State Health and Human Services department is preparing as many as 19,000 beds for migrant children arriving at the Southwest border without their parents to be ready by the end of this fiscal year.

Former Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Cindy Huang, who left the post just last week, told CBS News that the number of beds in shelters has almost doubled since President Joe Biden took office, up to about 11,500 beds. The department hopes to have 19,000 beds ready by October, the end of fiscal year 2022 and is prepared to seek additional funding from Congress for more beds if needed.

"One thing we've been working on, and it's a lesson learned from last year, is having capacity that we can dial up and down," Huang said. "What that allows us to do is to respond to whatever level of referrals come, which can be highly unpredictable."

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told CBS: "We have some less than 8,700 children in our care. That's down from a high of over 22,000 about a year ago. We ended up finding shelter for those children over the course of a year. And we believe that it has been provided in a safe and humane way, and we understand that there is a constant fluctuation of the number of children we may see transferred to us.”

Arrests at the Mexican border hit a two-decade high in March, and officials expect that the end of the public health order Title 42 will further drive up immigration. Becerra said on Tuesday that there is "nothing I'm aware of relating to the health conditions on the ground in the country that would give me reason to ask the CDC" to continue with Title 42.

"I understand there are concerns at the border, on the challenges we'll face as a country with regard to migrants who may seek asylum. And those are challenges that should be addressed," he added. "And I understand concerns that are being raised, but they should be addressed through the laws that address migration and border enforcement challenges."

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