美国国家公共电台 NPR Several Thousand Migrant Children In U.S. Custody Could Be Released Before Christmas

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AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The Trump¹ administration has come under fire for holding a record 15,000 migrant children in shelters across the country and for long delays in releasing those children to relatives. Today NPR has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to speed up the release of those children. That means hundreds of them may be able to spend Christmas with family already living in the U.S.

NPR's John Burnett has this exclusive report and joins us now from Austin. Hey, John.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE²: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: So tell us what you learned today.

BURNETT: Well, starting immediately, Health and Human Services, which is responsible for the care of the migrant kids, is changing a policy that's been really controversial. They're no longer going to do background checks on every adult who lives in the household where the child is going to live. Imagine if several families live in one household.

CHANG: Oh, yeah.

BURNETT: The government has had to do background checks on every single adult, which means fingerprinting³ and criminal records checked and even if there were no red flags. So this led to all these enormous delays, and some kids have been in custody⁴ since last summer - rather, this summer. The government will continue to do these full background checks on the actual adult sponsor who takes custody of the child, and that's often a parent, a legal guardian⁵ or extended family member.

CHANG: And how quickly exactly will these children be released, do you think?

BURNETT: Well, earlier today, I spoke⁶ with Lynn Johnson. She's the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services who's in charge of children and families. She told me initially⁷ there are about 2,000 kids in the shelter system who are ready to be released in the next four to five day.

CHANG: Oh, wow.

BURNETT: I know. I asked Assistant Secretary Johnson whether the extra vetting⁸ had accomplished⁹ anything.

LYNN JOHNSON: And we're finding that it's not adding anything to the protection or the safety for these children. The children should be home with their parents. The government makes lousy parents.

BURNETT: So, Ailsa, this is the first time the government has admitted that its background checks were a little over the top.

CHANG: And what has it been like in these shelters for these children all this time?

BURNETT: Well, I spoke with a source in West Texas who's familiar with the operation of the Tornillo tent city out in the desert. It's the largest shelter in the system, and it's been the most criticized. He said it was only supposed to be open for 30 days, but it's been extended three times. He says their staff is exhausted¹⁰. Now there are 2,800 kids out there, mainly teenage boys from Central America who came to the border without their parents, and they're running out of beds. The nonprofit that runs the camp let HHS know that its contract is up in two weeks, and the department had to do something to start downsizing the camp.

CHANG: So if all of these extreme, extensive background checks were causing lengthy¹¹ delays - there really wasn't any real justification¹² for such extensive background checks; the government's admitting to that now - why was the government doing all of this in the first place?

BURNETT: Well, I mean, HHS has been hypersensitive to the safety of the kids in its care ever since a highly publicized incident four years ago. There was some - a lot of reporting around migrant kids who were released to human trafficking rings that put the kids to work in an egg farm in Ohio. And the Trump administration said that was one of the reasons it initiated¹³ this extra screening.

But today these shelters are more than 90 percent full. They were going to reach capacity any week now, so the government had to do something to avert¹⁴ a crisis. And the assistant secretary said one option is they could have even added more beds.

JOHNSON: But I think what weighed more heavily was that I don't want to be causing any additional harm by keeping kids in care longer than they need to when they have a thoroughly¹⁵ vetted¹⁶ parent waiting for them.

BURNETT: And there was also the question of cost, Ailsa. The tent camp for children is reportedly costing the government nearly a million dollars a day. You have 2,000 employees out there taking care of 2,800 kids.

CHANG: Now, all along, children's advocates have been highly critical of these shelters. They have said that detention¹⁷ is not good for kids. What's been the reaction today?

BURNETT: So an organization called the National Center for Youth Law along with some other immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit¹⁸ last month challenging the extra backgrounding checks. And here was the reaction from the group's director of immigration, Neha Desai, when I told her about the rule change.

NEHA DESAI: This is amazing, wow.

BURNETT: Yeah.

CHANG: It's really happening.

BURNETT: She said it never should have been initiated in the first place 'cause it's causing so many children, some as young as toddlers, to be warehoused in these shelters.

DESAI: But I'm truly thrilled that the government has finally acknowledged its deeply flawed approach and chosen to correct course.

BURNETT: And she agreed it should dramatically reduce the number of kids in custody. And it's heartening that hundreds of them could be home for Christmas.

CHANG: It's wonderful news. That's NPR's John Burnett. Thanks, John.

BURNETT: You bet, Ailsa.