By Steve Neavling
A record number of unaccompanied migrant children are stuck in CBP facilities intended to briefly hold adult men.
Of the more than 3,200 migrant children in the facilities, nearly half were held beyond the three-day legal limit, according to documents obtained by CBS News. The agency is required to transfer children to shelters no longer than 72 hours after they were taken into custody.
About 170 children in CBP custody are under the age of 13.
By comparison, nine unaccompanied children were held beyond the three-day limit on Feb. 21.
The children are waiting to be transferred to shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
HHS told CNN that the Office of Refugee Resettlement “is aggressively working with our interagency partners to ensure that unaccompanied migrant children are safe and unified with family members or other suitable sponsors as quickly and safely as possible.”
