Migrant children languish in border shelters for weeks as more arrive

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Hundreds of migrant children are languishing at emergency shelters established by the Biden administration as the border crisis continues. 

"When I wake up every day, I feel really frustrated. Of the youth that I arrived with, I am the last one here," a 16-year-old Salvadoran boy said in a declaration filed with a federal court. "I would like to be home with my dad right now."

More than 700 children were in the government’s unlicensed emergency facilities in mid-July for more than three weeks.

The sites were established under the Biden administration in March, and are still being used despite being set up to serve as a temporary answer amid the crisis. The Trump and Obama administrations had also used similar temporary facilities during their respective tenures in the White House, but they were dealing with far fewer migrants than Biden. 

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"If you have a dinner party that you plan to have for three people, and 30,000 people show up, you’re going to have a problem," Judge Dolly M. Gee, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said at a recent hearing. 

"The infrastructure is not set up for tens of thousands of people coming in at one time, and somehow the paradigm has to shift to figure out how to deal with these types of numbers."

Advocates for the migrant children told the AP that placing the kids in emergency shelters is an inadequate and expensive option, adding that they do not adhere to the Department of Health and Human Services standards for care. 

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"There are other ways to do this. They kind of stick their head in the sand and act like the emergency intake sites are the only game in town, and it’s just so far from the truth," said Leecia Welch, senior director of legal advocacy and child welfare at the National Center for Youth Law. "When you start at horrifying, and better is still awful, that’s just not OK."

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HHS is in charge of caring for migrant children until they can be sent to live with family members, and has state-licensed shelters, foster care programs, and other facilities, but continues using the emergency sites. Advocates are asking Gee to order the emergency sites to follow existing standards for care. 

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An HHS spokesperson told Fox News in a statement that "the care and well-being of children in our custody continues to be a priority for HHS."

"We have a network of licensed shelters, influx sites, and emergency intake sites (EISs). HHS licensed shelters remain near capacity, despite placing unaccompanied children with sponsors at historically high rates. While we are working diligently to expand licensed bed capacity to meet the influx of arrivals at the border, EISs provide critical care ensuring children are safe and healthy as they await unification with a parent or appropriate sponsor. Currently, the overall average length of stay before discharge across all 4 EIS is only 17 days, down from nearly 40 days system wide in May," the statement continued. 

The news comes after U.S. border authorities reported more than 18,000 encounters with unaccompanied minors in July. The number is a 24% increase from June, despite the hot summer temperatures.

Unaccompanied minors are continuing to come into the country this month, with Health and Human Services announcing that 834 unaccompanied children and teenagers were apprehended on Aug. 5 alone. 

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report, as well as the Associated Press.