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world news Diabierna 27 augustus 2021

Migrant children spend weeks at US shelters as more arrive

(AP) - Five months after “If you have a dinner party States while they wait for an
the Biden administra- that you plan to have for immigration judge to decide
tion declared an emer- three people, and 30,000 whether they can stay in the
gency and raced to set up people show up, you’re go- country legally. While the
shelters to house a record ing to have a problem,” U.S. agency has a broad network
number of children cross- District Judge Dolly M. Gee, of state-licensed shelters that
ing the U.S.-Mexico bor- who oversees the decades- could be expanded, ample
der alone, kids continue to old settlement agreement space in foster care programs
languish at the sites, while that governs custody condi- and large, so-called influx
more keep coming, child tions for the children, said at care facilities that adhere to
welfare advocates say. a recent hearing. specific standards for staffing
and conditions, it continues
More than 700 children spent “The infrastructure is not to turn to these emergency
three weeks or longer at the set up for tens of thousands sites.
government’s unlicensed of people coming in at one
sites in mid-July, according time, and somehow the para- Advocates say the emergency
to declarations filed with a digm has to shift to figure out intake sites adhere to none
federal court overseeing cus- how to deal with these types of the agency’s existing stan-
tody conditions for immi- of numbers.” dards and are an inadequate
grant youth. Advocates say and expensive option, espe-
children should be released U.S. border authorities re- cially for young, vulnerable
quickly to their relatives in ported more than 18,000 children already coping with
the U.S. or sent to a licensed encounters with unaccom- the trauma of leaving home
facility. panied immigrant children and making the dangerous hearing on the issue is sched- ordered the administration
in July, up 24% from a month trip north. uled for Oct. 1. to stop expelling unaccom-
In one of the filings, a earlier. The rise comes in the panied children under the
16-year-old Salvadoran boy busiest month yet for the “There are other ways to do A Department of Health and policy.
said children were served Biden administration on the this. They kind of stick their Human Services spokesper-
raw meat. It took more than a border, with a total of near- head in the sand and act like son said licensed youth shel- Two months later, President
month for the boy, who said ly 200,000 encounters even the emergency intake sites ters remain near capacity, and Joe Biden took office and the
he speaks with both his par- though crossings are typically are the only game in town, the emergency intake sites number of immigrant chil-
ents each week, to be released expected to slow during the and it’s just so far from the provide critical care to chil- dren seeking to cross began
to his father in Georgia. summer. truth,” said Leecia Welch, dren who are waiting to be to rise. Shelters for immi-
senior director of legal advo- sent to live with a parent or grant youth were still run-
“When I wake up every day, According to a government cacy and child welfare at the other sponsor. The spokes- ning at reduced capacity due
I feel really frustrated. Of report in early August, the National Center for Youth person said caring for these to coronavirus concerns, and
the youth that I arrived with, Department of Health and Law and one of the attorneys kids is a priority, and the the Department of Health
I am the last one here,” the Human Services had nearly representing children in the agency is working to expand and Human Services was
boy said in his declaration. “I 15,000 children in its care but federal court case. “When the capacity of licensed sites. suddenly strapped for space
would like to be home with only 11,000 licensed shelter you start at horrifying, and to house them.
my dad right now.” beds for the immigrant chil- better is still awful, that’s just The Obama and Trump ad-
dren. Using large-scale facili- not OK.” ministrations also opened In recent months, the av-
When the Biden administra- ties can fill this gap, though temporary facilities when erage length of stay at the
tion erected the emergency advocates said the govern- Advocates have asked Gee there was a jump in children emergency intake sites has
sites in March to ease dan- ment would do better by to order the administration crossing the border alone, declined and the Depart-
gerous overcrowding at bor- expanding licensed shelters to follow standards at emer- but the numbers were not ment of Health and Human
der stations, they were meant where children are given case gency sites like it does for its near what the Biden admin- Services has shut down some
to be a temporary fix. But workers, recreation and six influx care facilities, which istration has seen. sites and worked to improve
months later, some wonder hours of education on each also aim to offset an increase conditions in others. But at
whether that’s still the case. weekday. in arrivals. For example, a Once the coronavirus ap- one point, some children
Carrizo Springs, Texas, facil- peared, the Trump adminis- were so desperate to get out
Border crossings by chil- The Department of Health ity for up to 1,000 children tration largely shut down the of the government’s largest
dren without an adult in July and Human Services is must provide a care worker Southwest border to asylum emergency facility at Fort
neared the same levels they tasked with caring for the for every eight children while seekers under a pandemic-re- Bliss Army Base, in Texas,
did in March despite the children until they can be they’re awake and at least one lated measure, turning away that they tried to escape, ac-
summer heat. sent to live with relatives or individual counseling session many immigrants. Then, in cording to declarations filed
other sponsors in the United each week for each child. A November, a federal judge with the court.

Scotland dismisses Spain bid to extradite Catalan official

(AP) — A Scottish court A former academic at the
on Thursday dismissed University of St. Andrews, Scottish government lawyers
extradition proceedings she won a seat in the Euro- didn’t contest the decision,
against a Catalan politi- pean Parliament in 2019 and but said Ponsati had commit-
cian sought by Spain over later moved to Brussels. ted a “clear breach of (her)
Catalonia’s failed inde- position of trust” by failing to
pendence bid. A Scottish judge, Sheriff tell the court she was resign-
Nigel Ross, ruled Thursday ing her post at St. Andrews
Clara Ponsati was accused of that Scottish courts had “no and moving to Belgium.
sedition by Spain over her jurisdiction” in the case be-
role as education minister cause Ponsati had indicated In the European courts, Pon-
in Catalonia’s unsuccessful she didn’t plan to return to sati and two other former top
2017 effort to secede, which Scotland. Catalan officials are fighting
involved a referendum that attempts to remove the par-
wasn’t sanctioned by the “You can’t extradite someone liamentary immunity they
Spanish government. who is not here,” he said, dis- have as EU lawmakers.
missing the case.