Biden administration holding 21,000 migrant children in crowded conditions

Washington, May 12 (RHC)-- In the U.S., the Associated Press is reporting the Joe Biden administration is currently detaining over 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children — including toddlers — across more than 200 facilities in two dozen states with little to no oversight. 

In at least five so-called shelters, over 1,000 children are being held in extremely crowded conditions during the pandemic.  Some of the facilities are run by contractors facing lawsuits and accusations of physical and sexual abuse. 

The U.S. government is also using about a dozen unlicensed facilities, including former military installations, to hold children. 

Advocates and attorneys are sounding the alarm on the health and safety of the children, who are at times detained without their parents knowing where they are.  The number of migrant children detained by the Biden administration has more than doubled in the past two months as asylum seekers continue to flee extreme poverty, violence and the effects of the climate crisis, all issues that have been exacerbated by U.S. foreign policy in Central America, the Caribbean and other regions.