The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 22, 2021

U.S. Says "Border Is Closed" as Number of Unaccompanied Children in Gov't Custody Tops 15,000
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared on
multiple news shows over the weekend to say the U.S. border is
effectively closed.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: "The border is closed. We are
expelling families. We are expelling single adults. And we've made a
decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children."

Over 15,000 unaccompanied migrant children are now in U.S. custody as
the number of asylum seekers at the southern border shows no sign of
slowing down. Over 5,000 of those are being held in Customs and Border
Protection jails. Axios reports over 800 children have been jailed for
over 10 days - more than a fourfold increase over the past week.


.