The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – specifically HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) – has advertised that it is looking for federal workers – across all government agencies – to volunteer to travel to locations along the U.S. southern border to help address the current immigration crisis for thirty to 120-day deployments to support ORR at facilities for unaccompanied children.
During Joe Biden’s first press conference last week, he downplayed the ‘crisis’ and said that the numbers had not changed significantly since he became president. Border Patrol officials say otherwise – that the numbers are off the charts. According to Fox News, “CBP encountered 100,441 individuals in February, a 28 percent increase over January, the agency said. Of those, 19,246 individuals were in family units; 9,457 were unaccompanied children (UACs) and 71,598 were single adults. Congressman Henry Cuellar’s office has leaked photos of the crowded conditions at a temporary holding facility in Donna, Texas.
Senator Lindsay Graham, visiting the border along with other senators, noted that if the Biden administration does not put back in force the Trump-era immigration policies, we are looking at “250,000” possible crossings per month. Specifically, the new administration reversed the asylum policy put in place by Trump that disallowed most asylum seekers to apply for asylum from third countries meaning that those coming from Central American countries would have to apply for asylum in the first country outside of their home country – meaning most of them were applying for asylum in Mexico.
Mexico’s President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says that Biden is responsible for the border crisis, having created expectations “that with the Government of President Biden there would be a better treatment of migrants. And this has caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border thinking that it is easier to do so.”
In order to address the growing number of unaccompanied minors at the border, HHS is seeking federal workers, preferably with Spanish language proficiency, to volunteer to work in a number of locations near the border, as well as in select cities where HHS will be moving the unaccompanied minors.
Below is a summary of the solicitation that appeared on usajobs.com.