The Biden administration plans to release 400 migrant families into the country every day by mid-June as the surge of immigrants continues to overwhelm border detention facilities.
Earlier this year when the border crisis first began, officials were releasing 50 families into the country.
By March, that number rose to 200 per day. Even then, several border towns were forced to declare a state of emergency because the number of migrants entering their towns was draining their resources.
To help these border towns, the administration promised to help care for the migrant families it has released.
“Within 90 days, the enrollment is projected to double to 400 per day,” said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement document obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“It is because of this unusual and compelling urgency that the Government requires the [emergency family reception sites] to meet the critical mission requirements of housing, feeding, transporting, and providing medical attention to these thousands of asylum-seeking families along the southwest border,” said the document.
The Biden administration’s decision to release migrant families into the U.S. follows Biden’s repeal of former president Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required migrants to stay in Mexico while they awaited their court hearing in the U.S.
Immigration officials are still trying to get control of the situation at the border, which President Joe Biden finally referred to as a “crisis” for the first time this week.
“We’re going to increase the number [of refugees],” Biden said in response to questions about why his administration kept former president Donald Trump’s cap on refugees in place.
“The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,” he added. “We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number.”
