"We are at risk of placing programs in jeopardy with their own state licensing requirements for the children in their care," Kuennen said June 20.
Melissa Velarde Hastings, a policy advisor to the U.S. bishops, said that the USCCB and its Migrant and Refugee Services have been advocating for Congress to appropriate $2.88 billion for HHS supplemental funding that would ensure funding through the rest of the fiscal year and to provide adequate care for children.
The appropriations process is an important way to ensure better treatment for minors in federal custody or care, especially given concerns about some large-scale facilities which detain undocumented border crossers.
"From our perspective we see these facilities as being an important tool to have available in times when the referral numbers are quite high and it needs the additional capacity," Hastings told CNA. "However, we are advocating for increased oversight and heightened standards for those facilities."
She encouraged those concerned to visit the USCCB's Justice for Immigrants website at justiceforimmigrants.org.
Kuennen saw a need to ensure adequate bed capacity for children and more child-friendly options for migrants.
"There's absolutely a need to continue to increase available foster home placements or smaller-scale placements for children so that there are alternatives to some of the large-scale facilities that we see and hear about often," she told CNA. "We continue to support the work in building up a network that is more safe and appropriate for children."
Earlier this month the Washington Post reported that HHS funding cuts could violate a federal court settlement and state licensing agreements that require education and recreation for minors in federal custody.
One shelter employee, speaking to the Washington Post on condition of anonymity, said the cuts have worried workers who think the care for children will suffer. The educational classes and sports are crucial for the children's physical and mental health, the employee said.
Unless criteria are met, the Anti-Deficiency Act requires HHS to reallocate up to $167 million to the unaccompanied children program and away from Refugee Support Services, trafficking victims and survivors of torture.
Almost 85,000 people who were part of a "family unit" were apprehended on the Southwest border, with another 4,100 deemed inadmissible. at the border's ports of entry. The "vast majority" of those apprehended were released into the U.S. "due to a lack of space and authority to detain them," said Azar and McAleenan's letter.
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In all of fiscal year 2012, the border patrol apprehended just over 11,000 people who were part of a family unit.
Border patrol agents now spend most of their time caring for families and children, providing medical assistance, transportation, and food service "instead of performing law enforcement duties."
Azar and McAleenan's letter to Congress cited flu outbreaks at the Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas and other facilities. These outbreaks require separate quarantine facilities to reduce the risk to children and other vulnerable people.
"While agents are providing the best care possible, these groups need more appropriate care, and they need it now," they said.
Cuts to legal services have also drawn criticism. Such services are necessary for many unaccompanied minors to contest possible deportation.
"We are deeply troubled that these services are being cut for children, who are among the most vulnerable population of immigrants in detention," Kica Matos, director of the Center on Immigration and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice, told the Washington Post. Matos' center manages legal aid programs for the U.S. government.