The new contract will help to house over 1,000 migrants
The Biden Administration is spending $86 million on hotel rooms to rehouse migrants close to the US-Mexico border, it has been revealed.
A non-profit organisation called ‘Endeavors’ has said that the Department of Homeland Security “has contracted with Endeavors to provide critical services to migrant families”, which will move migrant families from detention centres in the country to hotels.
The contract, which is set to last six months, will ensure that 1,2000 migrants are provided with rooms.
The move represents a shift which many will see as a positive from Joe Biden, whose administration was criticised early upon taking office for not dismantling Donald Trump’s apparatus of child detention with great speed.
Previously, child migrants were held in for-profit detention centres, conditions at which have been described by Human Rights Watch as “inhumane”.
In January, Biden ordered the justice department not to renew any of its contract with for-profit detention centres.
The new plans come as record numbers of people are attempting to enter the country, with the US estimated to receive up to 2 million migrants this year, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
Between the months of January and February this year, the amount of people found attempting to enter the US on the southwestern border increased by 12,000, from 7,000 people to 19,000 family members. So far, only 13,000 have been granted access to enter the US.
According to recent figures obtained by The Washington Post, there are more than 10,000 migrant children being held by the Department of Health and Human Services, and 5,000 more unaccompanied minors in the care of Customs and Border Protection, which is nearly double the previous record.
