…的数目无人陪伴的美国青少年和儿童审查最新政府数据的多位消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，美墨边境的儿童人数创下纪录，迫使儿童在极度拥挤的边境设施中呆得更久，其中许多设施类似于监狱。
现在有4276个在押儿童，高于本周早些时候的约3400人。这一数字增加了25%，消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，这令人担忧，并可能导致2018-2019年激增期间最后一次出现的那种环境，在那次激增中，六名移民儿童在美国监管下死亡。
审查最近政府数据的各种消息来源告诉美国广播公司新闻，以大流行前的水平衡量，过度拥挤已经激增。格兰德河流域的容量为363%，所有主要边境巡逻区的容量都远远超过100%。
消息人士称，目前儿童在通常用于关押成年男性24小时的设施中的平均时间已增加到117小时，比法律规定的拘留期限长45小时。
过去一周，这一时间也大幅增加。
何塞·路易斯·冈萨雷斯/路透社
移民们在穿过里奥布拉沃河后透过边境的墙向外张望
据众议员维罗妮卡·埃斯科瓦尔(Veronica Escobar)说，大多数孩子都在吃饭，可以看电影，但他们睡在地板上的薄垫子上，只有纸一样薄的箔毯来保暖。
“没有社交距离。这个设施已经满了，”埃斯科瓦尔谈到她在得克萨斯州埃尔帕索参观的设施时说。
数据显示，大多数儿童(超过2600人)已经由边境巡逻官员进行了全面处理，但正在等待被转移到美国卫生和公众服务部(HHS)的设施中，这些设施旨在收容未成年人。
数据还显示，政府面临的瓶颈和挑战只会越来越大。
在边境被捕的青少年人数每周都在增加，在过去两周内平均超过500人，在四周内可能被捕的总人数达到前所未有的15，000人。
传统上，试图进入美国的移民人数在春末会增加。
人权观察人士指责特朗普政府破坏了该国固有的人道主义保护移居系统。尽管如此，美国大赦国际谴责使用类似HHS目前依靠的设施来处理涌入的儿童。
大赦国际的难民和移民权利研究员丹尼斯·贝尔说:“政府需要加快行动，并且正在采取措施加快行动。”。“在此期间，我们必须承认，我们不想在儿童到达时将他们释放到街上，或者释放到未经审查的赞助商那里，从而危及他们，但我们需要更多的能力，我们需要更快的行动。”
周末，国土安全部动员联邦应急管理局协助庇护和运送无人陪伴的儿童。
国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯(Alejandro Mayorkas)在一份声明中表示:“我感谢联邦应急管理局团队的非凡才华和反应能力。”“我为边境巡逻队的特工感到无比自豪，他们在困难的情况下夜以继日地工作，照顾暂时由我们照顾的儿童。然而，正如我多次说过的那样，边境巡逻设施不适合儿童。”
根据多种来源，目前由难民安置卫生和人类服务办公室负责的约8，800名无人陪伴的移民增加了积压。这比上周三的8100英镑有所上涨。
避难所的容量通常在13，000以上，但是新冠肺炎(新型冠状病毒肺炎)大流行已经大幅降低了这一比例。然而，奥尔在一份声明中承认，它授权其网络中的设施开放到大流行前的水平。
奥尔在一份声明中说:“额外的庇护所容量将最大限度地减少儿童在边境巡逻站逗留时间过长的可能性，他们在那里还面临新冠肺炎病毒传播的风险以及与此类环境相关的儿童福利问题。”。“超负荷运行的边境站对儿童造成的感染风险比奥尔项目站点更大，奥尔项目站点以完全许可的容量运行，但使用其他新冠肺炎缓解措施。”
由于州许可官员实施了更严格的健康指导方针，积压可能会持续。
“不是我们能打开电灯开关，”一位高级政府官员说。“因此，这些州许可官员和州卫生官员理解并实施疾控中心的备忘录，以使我们的设施做出必要的改变，这将非常关键。”
Number of unaccompanied migrant kids in US custody up 25% since last week, administration facing unprecedented crisis
The number ofunaccompanied teens and children in U.S. custodyalong the U.S.-Mexico border has reached record numbers, forcing children to stay longer in perilously overcrowded border facilities, many of which are similar to jail, multiple sources who reviewed the most recent government data told ABC News.
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There are now 4,276children in custody, up from about 3,400 earlier in the week. It is a 25% increase, which sources tell ABC News is troubling and could lead to the kind of environment last seen during the 2018-2019 surge, in which six migrant children died in U.S. custody.
Overcrowding, measured in pre-pandemic levels, has spiked, various sources who reviewed recent government data told ABC News. Rio Grande Valley is at 363% capacity and all the major Border patrol sectors are at well over 100% capacity.
The current average time the children spend in facilities typically designed to hold adult males for 24 hours, has increased to 117 hours -- 45 hours longer than the legal limits on custody, the sources said.
That amount of time has also increased significantly over the past week.
Most children are being fed and have access to movies, but they're sleep on thin pads on the floor with only paper-thin foil blankets to keep them warm, according to congresswoman Veronica Escobar.
"There was no social distancing. This facility is at capacity," said Escobar of the facility she visited in El Paso, Texas.
The data indicates that most of the children, over 2,600 of them, have been fully processed by Border Patrol officials, but are waiting to be transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) facilities, which are designed to shelter minors.
The data also shows the bottleneck, and the challenge for the administration, is only set to grow.
The number of teens apprehended at the border is increasing weekly, averaging at over 500 in the past two weeks and putting the total number of possible apprehensions at an unprecedented 15,000 over a four-week span.
Traditionally, the numbers of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. increases in late spring.
Human rights observers place blame on the Trump administration for dismantling the humanitarian protections built into the country'simmigrationsystem. Still, Amnesty International USA has condemned the use of facilities like the ones HHS currently relies on for handling the influx of children.
"The government needs to move faster, and it is taking steps to move faster," said Denise Bell, a researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International. "And in the interim, we have to acknowledge that we don't want to endanger children by releasing them onto the street when they arrive, or to sponsors that haven't been vetted, but we need more capacity, and we need to move faster."
Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security mobilized FEMA to assist in sheltering and transporting the unaccompanied children.
"I am grateful for the exceptional talent and responsiveness of the FEMA team," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. "I am incredibly proud of the agents of the Border Patrol, who have been working around the clock in difficult circumstances to take care of children temporarily in our care. Yet, as I have said many times, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child."
Adding to the backlog are some 8,800 unaccompanied migrants currently under the responsibility of the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to multiple sources. This is up from 8,100 last Wednesday.
Shelter capacity is typically upwards of 13,000, but theCOVID-19pandemic has cut that drastically. Still, ORR acknowledged in a statement that it authorized facilities in its network to open up to pre-pandemic levels.
"Additional shelter capacity will minimize the likelihood that children remain in Border Patrol stations longer than necessary, where they are also exposed to COVID-19 transmission risks as well as child welfare concerns associated with such settings," ORR said in a statement. "Over-capacity Border Stations pose a greater infection risk to children than ORR program sites that are operating at full licensed capacity but use other COVID-19 mitigation measures."
The backlog likely persists as the result of more strict health guidelines enforced by state licensing officials.
"It's not us being able to turn on a light switch," one senior administration official said. "So it's going to be really critical that those state licensing officials and state health officials understand and implement that CDC memo to allow our facilities to make those changes necessary."
