By Curtis Brodner
The number of unaccompanied children held in Customs and Border Protection detention centers along the border dropped by 88% since late March, when the camps were severely overcrowded, CBS reported.
Border Patrol announced it is detaining only 677 minors as of last weekend compared to the record 5,767 held in CBP camps on March 28.
CBP is obligated to transfer custody of children to the Department of Health and Human Services after three days. Children in CBP custody in March were held for an average of over 5 days. That average has now dropped to about 20 hours.
This capacity decrease returns the rate of child detention to just below where it was in February, based on NPR statistics.
HHS opened dozens of temporary camps in convention centers, military sites and work camps as the Biden administration faced criticism from activists, advocates and Democratic politicians.
ProPublica found conditions at the HHS facilities suffered due to the rush to get children out of Border Patrol facilities.
The Biden administration also renewed grants for permanent HHS facilities that have faced numerous accusations of physical and sexual abuse against the children.
“There may be no good choices,” Mark Greenberg, a former head of the Administration for Children and Families at the HHS, told ProPublica. “Everything has to be weighed against the alternative. And the alternative is the backups at Customs and Border Protection.”