President Biden compares current migrant surge to years past
Numbers similar, but situations much different - NBC's Gabe Gutierrez explains
CARRIZO SPRINGS, Tex. (KYMA, KECY/NBC News) - With more unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S. border, President Joe Biden is defending his decision to let them stay.
"The only people we're not going to let sitting there on the other side of the Rio Grande by themselves with no help are children." he said.
The President insists there's no crisis, and that surges are seasonal.
"There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter."
This year, between January and February, there was a 28% rise in border apprehensions. In 2019, during the same time period, the increase was 31%. But the overall numbers this year are higher. 100,000 in February, compared to 76,000 in 2019.
The Biden administration says that's partly due to migrants having delayed their trips during the pandemic.
"What's alarming though, is the higher number of unaccompanied minor this time around. There's now more than 16-thousand in federal custody. Some in facilities like this one. The Department of Health and Human Services says it has fewer beds due to COVID." said NBC's Gabe Gutierrez.
In the HHS facility we toured in Carrizo Springs, Texas, we saw teenage boys playing soccer and going to class.
Now the rush is on to set up temporary housing in San Diego, Dallas, Midland, and Pecos, Texas, plus on military bases in San Antonio and El Paso.
More than 100 children at the HHS facility in Carrizo Springs tested positive for coronavirus when they arrived.
On Thursday we learned from administration officials, that migrant kids are not being tested in Border Patrol stations where they spend their days in even more crowded conditions.
