拜登政府周二首次允许新闻媒体进入一个海关和边境保护局设施，该设施因最近移民儿童和家庭激增而面临前所未有的过度拥挤。

冠状病毒大流行引发的积压案件越来越多，导致卫生和公众服务部难民安置办公室出现延误。该机构负责在儿童被边境巡逻队逮捕后为他们提供住宿。

达里奥·洛佩兹-米尔斯-普尔/盖蒂影像公司

2021年3月30日，德克萨斯州唐娜，美国国土安全部拘留设施的接收区正在处理移民。

媒体代表被允许进入德克萨斯州唐娜的一个临时帐篷设施，该设施本应容纳250名移民，但截至周二，人口已超过4100人。根据海关和边境保护局的数据，其中3400人是无人陪伴的未成年人，超过2000人超过了72小时的法定等候时间。

视频显示，孩子们和家人挤在拥挤的生活区，睡在灰色的野营垫上，用聚酯薄膜毯子取暖。在透明的塑料豆荚里，几乎没有空间和肩并肩挤在一起的小孩一起行走。

记者们还看到了一个有围栏的娱乐区，那里有两组男孩在踢足球，戴着墨镜的特工在看着他们。

该设施占地184，000平方英尺，需要500多名代理人员。运营该设施每月需要1600万美元。

国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯(Alejandro Mayorkas)周二在一份声明中表示:“正如我多次说过的那样，边境巡逻设施不是孩子的地方。”“我们一直在夜以继日地工作，与HHS协调，迅速将无人陪伴的儿童从这些拥挤的边境巡逻站转移到HHS的看护所，这样他们就可以被安置在家人或其他资助者那里。”

周二上午早些时候，美国边境巡逻队带着一小组记者沿着边界线附近的土路前进，他们在那里观察到移民被捕，这些人在可能被转移到唐娜处理中心之前向当局自首。

在里奥格兰德山谷被捕的所有无人陪伴的儿童都被带到唐娜设施，在那里他们接受健康检查，并等待被转移到难民安置办公室。CBP还会在他们到达时测量体温，如果他们发烧，会建议他们进行额外的健康检查。

周二，格兰德河流域运营项目部代理执行官奥斯卡·埃斯卡米拉带记者参观了该设施。

“是的，我们是军官。是的，我们执行移居“法律，”埃斯卡米拉说但是当你有孩子的时候，我们必须照顾这些孩子。这里不适合这些孩子。"

埃斯卡米拉说，孩子们在监狱里时，至少每48小时有机会给家人打一次电话。

新政府从一开始就迅速采取行动，扭转特朗普时代的几项移民政策。尽管新白宫因在为应对当前移民潮做好充分准备之前取消强硬限制而受到批评，但一些限制仍然存在。

拜登政府官员很快指出，特朗普大流行时代的移民限制有一个重大变化:无人陪伴的移民儿童的待遇。

达里奥·洛佩兹-米尔斯-普尔/盖蒂影像公司

2021年3月30日，得克萨斯州唐娜，年轻的移民在国土安全部的拘留中心等待新冠肺炎的测试。

当特朗普政府援引公共卫生法典中被称为“第42条”的一部分时，它为移民当局开了绿灯，开始迅速转移无人陪伴的移民儿童。当时的孩子大多在十几岁，有时在几个小时内就被送回墨西哥。海关和边境保护局表示，有必要减少其设施的过度拥挤。

移民的法律支持者谴责使用第42章是非法的和不必要的残酷。与此同时，拜登政府承担了处理和照顾没有父母或监护人抵达边境的儿童的责任。

这一变化，加上跨境儿童数量的空前增加，使政府资源紧张，并迫使拜登政府争相寻找更多的避难所。联邦官员已经在加州和德克萨斯州召集了会议中心，甚至为大规模的住房建设增选了一个美国宇航局的场地。

第42章所谓的健康要求的适用差异也见于跨境移民家庭。在拜登政府的领导下，数千人被拒绝入境或“驱逐出境”，但最近几周，大多数人仍留在美国进行传统的移民处理。

去年2月，近2万个移民家庭在边境被美国移民当局拦截。其中，近8000人根据第42条被迅速“驱逐”。美国官员表示，边境另一边墨西哥塔毛利帕斯州的移民官员拒绝接受有7岁以下子女的家庭。

1st news media allowed inside overcrowded migrant facility under Biden

The Biden administration for the first time on Tuesday allowed news media inside a Customs and Border Protection facility facing unprecedented overcrowding due to the recent surge of migrant children and families.

A growing backlog inflamed by the coronavirus pandemic has caused delays for the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for housing children after they are apprehended by Border Patrol.

Representatives from the press were allowed inside a temporary tent facility in Donna, Texas, which was meant to hold 250 migrants but had a population of more than 4,100 as of Tuesday. Of those, 3,400 were unaccompanied minors and more than 2,000 have waited beyond the legal limit of 72 hours, according to Customs and Border Protection.

The video shows children and families packed into tight living quarters, sleeping on gray camping mats with mylar blankets for warmth. In transparent, plastic pods there is hardly room to walk with young children crammed shoulder to shoulder.

Journalists also saw a fenced in recreation area where two groups of boys were playing soccer, agents in dark sunglasses watching over them.

The facility spans 184,000 square feet and requires a staff of more than 500 agents. It takes $16 million per month to run the facility.

"As I have said repeatedly, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday. "We have been working around the clock, in coordination with HHS, to quickly move unaccompanied children out of these crowded Border Patrol stations and into the care of HHS so they can be placed with family members or other sponsors."

Earlier Tuesday morning, U.S. Border Patrol took a small group of journalists along dirt roads near the borderline, where they observed the arrest of migrants who had surrendered to authorities prior to their likely transfer to the Donna processing center.

All unaccompanied children who are apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley are brought to the Donna facility where they receive a health screening and wait to be transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. CBP also takes temperatures as they arrive and refers them to additional health checks if they have a fever.

Acting Executive Officer for Rio Grande Valley Operational Programs Division Oscar Escamilla showed reporters through the facility on Tuesday.

"Yes we are officers. Yes we enforce theimmigrationlaws," Escamilla said. "But when you have kids involved, we have to take care of these kids. This is not the right place for these kids."

Escamilla said children are offered the opportunity to call family members at least once every 48 hours while they are in the facility.

The new administration took swift actions right from the start to reverse several immigration policies of the Trump era. While the new White House has come under fire for pulling back hard-line restrictions before it was fully prepared to handle the current surge of migrants, some remain in place.

Biden administration officials are quick to point out one major departure from Trump’s pandemic-era immigration restrictions: the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children.

When the Trump administration invoked a section of the public health code known as "Title 42" it gave immigration authorities the green light to start rapidly removing unaccompanied migrant children. Mostly in their teens, kids at the time were sent back to Mexico sometimes within a matter of hours. Customs and Border Protection said it was necessary to reduce overcrowding at its facilities.

Legal advocates for immigrants have decried the use of Title 42 as illegal and unnecessarily cruel. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has taken on the responsibility of processing and caring for children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian.

The change, combined with an unprecedented increase in the number of kids found crossing the border, has strained government resources and sent the Biden administration scrambling to find more shelter space. Federal officials have enlisted convention centers in California and Texas, and even co-opted a NASA site for the mass housing effort.

The difference in the application of the Title 42 so-called health mandates is also seen with migrant families who cross the border. Thousands have been turned back or "expelled" under the Biden administration, but the majority in recent weeks have remained in the U.S. for traditional immigration processing.

Last February, nearly 20,000 migrant families were stopped at the border by U.S. immigration authorities. Of those, nearly 8,000 were rapidly "expelled" under Title 42. U.S. officials have said immigration officials on the other side of the border, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, have refused to accept families with children under the age of 7.