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What’s Happening To Migrant Children At The Southern Border

A bracelet used by people smugglers and inscribed with the name of an immigrant who crossed illegally from Mexico to the US to seek asylum is discarded near the Rio Grande river at the border city of Roma.
A bracelet used by people smugglers and inscribed with the name of an immigrant who crossed illegally from Mexico to the US to seek asylum is discarded near the Rio Grande river at the border city of Roma.

A record number of unaccompanied minors are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border and Border Patrol facilities are overwhelmed. Agencies are scrambling to find shelter for them, and they say they need more help.

Groups of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have recently visited the border, framing the situation in very different lights. A group of GOP senators toured high-profile areas on the border and warned against a surge of human trafficking. Democrats instead chose to highlight the plight of migrant children being held by the federal government.

About 5,000 children are being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in emergency influx shelters.

What does their reality look like on the ground at the border? And what should the U.S. government do about it?

Copyright 2021 WAMU 88.5

Arfie Ghedi