The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Is a Crisis – but Is It New?

1. Rapid Increase
From January to February 2021, there was a 61% uptick in the number of arriving unaccompanied children, and a 163% increase in arriving families. The numbers for March 2021 have not yet been formally reported, but they are expected to be high.

If this trend continues, fiscal year 2021 has the potential to surpass the high numbers that were seen in fiscal years 2014 and 2019. However, this is not yet clear, as migration flows tend to increase in the spring months and reduce a bit in the hotter, late summer months.

2. Push and Pull Factors
There are additional push and pull factors that could give rise to increased migration.

Relief agencies report the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened economic conditions in the Northern Triangle countries and Mexico – which have always been dire.

Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua suffered through two Category 4 hurricanes within a two-week span in November 2020 that killed hundreds of people and left millions in need.

Also, asylum-seeking children and families may have some sense that the current U.S. administration will be more welcoming than the prior one. This might motivate more migrants to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. in search of safety and protection.

3. The U.S. Government Was Not Prepared
Advocates celebrated when the Biden administration exempted unaccompanied minors from the current Title 42 expulsion policy that expels migrants based upon a public health law. But government officials were ill-prepared for the surge of arriving children that followed.

By law, Border Patrol agents have 72 hours to turn children over to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Yet the Office of Refugee Resettlement currently lacks capacity to house all the children in need of shelter, in part because many of their facilities were dismantled under the Trump administration.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is rallying to construct more shelters and to release children as quickly as possible to relatives, but the backlog is huge, and many children have had to remain in Border Patrol custody for far longer than 72 hours. Whether and when the Office of Refugee Resettlement will be able to get the situation under control remains unclear.

So, is there anything different about what is taking place now?

So far, not really, although there are serious concerns about the conditions for the recently arriving children, and many hope that the expulsion policy will soon be lifted for all migrants. But time will tell whether this is an unprecedented year or not.

Randi Mandelbaum is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, Rutgers University. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.