US homeland security chief says migrant conditions improved
The US Homeland Security chief drew the wrath of Democrats on Thursday when he said conditions for detained migrant children on the southern border had improved after reports of squalor and abuse.
The administration of President Donald Trump is facing pressure from the Democratic opposition majority in the House of Representatives amid reports of abusive conditions for undocumented migrants who crossed the into the United States in recent months, many of whom are families and unaccompanied children.
During a hearing before the House Oversight Committee, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said there is a “much better situation for children at the border now.”
He said emergency border funding approved by Congress at the end of June has reduced the number of people detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from a 20,000-person average in June to its current level of less than 10,000 people.
It also paid for the opening of new tent camps, and allowed for the reduction of unaccompanied minors in CBP custody from 2,700 last month to 350 on Tuesday.
But committee chair Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, reacted with disbelief to his testimony, accusing McAleenan of a “tendency to sugarcoat” what he said was an appalling situation at the border.
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