The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing $10 billion in federal funds in five Democrat-run states over allegations of fraudulent child-care programming, an HHS official confirmed to ABC News.

The HHS official confirmed that the five states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

The funding freeze will severely hamstring families in these states during the new year and could have long-term implications, particularly for low-income families, amid an ongoing affordability crisis, according to economic data.

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Source: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/hhs-freezes-10-billion-child-care-funding-5/story?id=128945422&fbclid=IwY2xjawPNFhNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFmZWtaUnMxTE1IYXRraHEyc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjZqBww-0Uhom4L2je-0iHL_fj51OqebjymSoQEU9yWb4Ou-2LLbOr0lbDFo_aem_vyYh01QDuPXUOO6Dh-Enrg

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The Biden administration’s Southern Border coordinator will step down at the end of the month as officials continue to struggle with a large influx of migrants trying to enter the United States.

Roberta Jacobson, the former ambassador to Mexico, was chosen as President Biden’s border czar amid pressure from lawmakers to address what some are calling a “crisis” at the southern border.

“Consistent with her commitment to serve in the administration’s first 100 days, Ambassador Jacobson will retire from her role as Coordinator at the end of this month,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Roberta Jacobson, the Biden administration’s Southern Border coordinator, will step down at the end of the month. (REUTERS/Tom Brenner)

VP HARRIS VISITS CHICAGO BAKERY EVEN AS BORDER CRISIS ESCALATES

Sullivan praised Jacobson’s work in shaping the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and renewed efforts to cooperate with Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, home to many migrant children making the dangerous passage to the U.S.

More than 16,000 unaccompanied migrant children are in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and another 4,000 in the care of Customs and Border Protection, according to official figures. CBP announced on Thursday that there have been 172,000 migrant encounters in March, of which nearly 19,000 involved unaccompanied children.

The administration has blamed Trump’s dismantling of asylum systems for the “challenge” it faces at the border while Republicans have cited Biden’s immigration policies and messaging.

In a statement to The New York Times, Jacobson praised Biden’s effort to repair and recast the nation’s immigration system after four years under former President Trump.

“They continue to drive toward the architecture that the president has laid out: an immigration system that is humane, orderly, and safe,” she said in a brief interview. “I leave optimistically. The policy direction is so clearly right for our country.”

She noted that her appointment was always intended to last 100 days, which will expire at the end of April.

Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to work with Mexico and Central American countries on improving conditions in the region. Harris has been sharply criticized for failing to visit the border.

Jacobson told the Times she was confident the administration would make progress in slowing the flow of migrants.

“They know it is something that can’t happen overnight,” she said. But she added that officials in the other countries were motivated to find solutions, as well.

“Diplomacy is a conversation,” she said. “It’s not a monologue.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-border-roberta-jacobson-step

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EXCLUSIVE: Fox News has learned from a senior source with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that a plan is under consideration for Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) to begin releasing illegal border crossers who claim asylum without issuing a Notice to Appear (NTA) – meaning they will depart custody without a court date.

Such a decision would be unprecedented if enacted and would place the responsibility of seeking an asylum hearing on the migrants through Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or legal assistance.

The source says the reasoning for the decision is that the situation has “become so dire that BP [Border Patrol] has no choice but to release people nearly immediately after apprehension because there is no space to hold people even to do necessary NTA paperwork.”

The process of issuing each migrant an NTA can take hours per individual or family. This would not apply to unaccompanied minors.

The RGV, based in Texas, is ground zero for the surge in border crossings and is more than 700% overcapacity.

BIDEN ADMIN ALLOWED MAJORITY OF MIGRANT FAMILIES WHO SURRENDERED AT BORDER INTO US 

When migrants are released in the RGV, Border Patrol usually coordinates it with Sister Norma Pimentel and her Catholic Humanitarian Respite Center. Pimentel tells Fox News that she is aware and is “coordinating her response.”

The controversial move allegedly on the table comes as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to open another facility for unaccompanied child migrants in Pecos, Texas, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announced Saturday.

The Temporary Influx Care Facility would house at least 500 unaccompanied minors to start, with the capacity to house 2,000 children.

“While ORR has worked to build up its licensed bed capacity to almost 13,500 beds, additional capacity is urgently needed to manage both enhanced COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the increasing numbers of UC referrals from DHS,” an ORR spokesperson said.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that border crossings were on track to be the highest in 20 years.

CBP announced it had encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the border in February, while numbers of child migrants in custody have also increased dramatically. The Biden administration has been moving to increase capacity of facilities to house migrants, and building a number of extra facilities — including looking at NASA sites and military bases.

BIDEN ADMIN CONSIDERING FLYING LATIN AMERICAN MIGRANTS TO STATES NEAR CANADIAN BORDER

“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Mayorkas said, although he later added that the situation is “not new” and noted the U.S. has faced border spikes before.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration is considering flying migrants to states near the Canadian border for processing.

CBP requested the plane support from ICE on Friday after 1,000 migrant families and unaccompanied minors crossed the Rio Grande into South Texas on Friday morning, Homeland Security officials told The Washington Post. Border agents reportedly still had another 1,000 migrants they were unable to process Thursday night.

The backups at CBP are exacerbated by the nearly 4,500 unaccompanied children being held in detention centers and tent sites at the border, many beyond the legal three-day limit.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been tasked since January with fingerprinting teens in child migrant shelters who entered the country without their parents, BuzzFeed News reported and Axios confirmed.

Why it matters: ICE says the data collection is for the children’s protection, but it also comes as immigration agencies have ramped up their collection of migrant biometric data.

More than 7,800 child migrants released from shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to family members or other “sponsors” have not shown up for immigration court hearings and have “disappeared,” a senior ICE official told Axios in a statement.

• The agency’s move is intended, at least in part, “to mitigate and prevent the risk of their victimization by human traffickers and smugglers, and to reduce misidentification,” according to the senior official. Immigrant registration and fingerprinting are also required by law.

The big picture: Over the last year, the Trump administration has taken multiple steps to ramp up the amount of biometric data they collect on migrants — enabling them to more carefully track and, when necessary, quickly deport unauthorized immigrants.

• In April 2019, Border Patrol began collecting biometric data, including fingerprints, from more migrant children under 14 years old who crossed the border with their parents, AP reported.
• Last month, Customs and Border Protection began a pilot program to collect DNA from some migrants in its custody, CNN reported. Immigrants in any federal immigration agency’s custody could ultimately be subject to having their DNA collected and stored in the FBI’s criminal database.

Between the lines: The trend points to immigration enforcement officials’ frustration at how little information HHS collects — or verifies — before releasing a migrant child to a sponsor.

• “HHS is basically rushing to get kids out of custody,” a White House official told Axios. “When a child goes missing, we have nothing on the child.”
• The senior ICE official called HHS’ current information collection practices “dangerous and irresponsible,” accusing the department of “willfully” relying on suspect documents “for the sole purpose of increasing the speed of placement and ignoring the obvious risks to child welfare and safety.”

The other side: HHS told Axios in a statement that it has extensive vetting processes that do not allow migrant minors to be released to “known fugitives” and that they provide ICE with the address and name of each released child’s new caretaker.

• “These are vulnerable children in difficult circumstances, and HHS treats its responsibility for each child with the utmost care,” it added.

Source: https://www.axios.com/ice-fingerprinting-teen-migrants-immigration-e2544f97-0ce4-499b-a292-a52f486bc328.html

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