REPORT: 18,000 unaccompanied minors now in custody. Is it a crisis yet?

BuzzFeed’s Hamed Aleaziz reports that there are now “more than 18,000” unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody right now:

NEW: CBP had nearly 5,500 unaccompanied immigrant children in custody yesterday — the number of children in CBP custody continues to go up.

Nearly 400 kids were transferred to HHS care.

In sum, there are more than 18,000 in US custody now.

— Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) March 26, 2021

5500 with Customs and Border Protection, 12,000 with Health and Human Services:

18K unaccompanied children (5,500 in CBP and over 12K in HHS).

— Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) March 26, 2021

And the numbers are expected to rise:

As these numbers rise, Biden administration is trying to expand HHS capacity and get federal employees from across the US help them process children out of US custody ASAP: https://t.co/7YxqjNLnHd

— Hamed Aleaziz (@Haleaziz) March 26, 2021

As we told you earlier, photos shared by Republican senators touring the border yesterday and today show what’s really going on:

Day two from the border—this is a pod that’s designed to hold 80 people that’s currently holding 709. pic.twitter.com/rKLH5urdyh

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) March 26, 2021

This is unreal:

What I’m seeing on the border is harrowing: facilities are dangerously overcrowded, border patrol officers are overwhelmed & under-supported, smugglers (often w/ties to drug cartels) are profiting massively, hundreds of scared kids are on their own. pic.twitter.com/M9EtgxpJlh

— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) March 26, 2021

Now, compare that to 2019:

For a side-by-side comparison, the first photo is from my trip to the border in 2019–the second is from today. Plenty of space to walk around and safely spread out. Tell me this isn’t a crisis. https://t.co/ING6lsNYor pic.twitter.com/ujQXNxkQKD

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) March 26, 2021

Is it a crisis yet?

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