WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2021) US border officials are receiving anecdotal reports that parents in migrant families are voluntarily separating from children, who then cross the borders as unaccompanied minors, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Thursday.
"We are certainly hearing anecdotally that some families self-separate to allow their children to enter the United States voluntarily. That speaks to the trauma that these families have endured in their desperation to give their children a better life," Mayorkas said in testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The issue revolves around an order from the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020 invoking a health provision known as Title 42, which the Trump administration used to prevent illegal immigrants from carrying COVID-19 infections across the Mexican and Canadian borders.
A recent Human Rights Watch report said Title 42 restrictions remain largely in place, blocking entry for single adults and some families, with a Biden administration exception requiring border agents to admit unaccompanied children.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it expelled 111,714 individuals under Title 42 in April and that the agency continues to use the provision to block entry of single adults and some family units.
Of 178,622 migrants stopped at the border in April alone, 62.5 percent were turned away under Title 42. During the month, agents encountered 13,962 unaccompanied minors crossing the border, CPB said.
