White House tensions rise over migrant kids

Top aides to President Joe Biden are ramping up pressure on the agency that shelters thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, voicing frustration that kids are not being released quickly enough from detention, three U.S. officials said.

This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

As thousands of unaccompanied children crowd into overwhelmed U.S. migrant shelters, frustrations are rising in the White House.

Three U.S. officials told Reuters that top aides to President Joe Biden are demanding children be released more quickly from detention.

That pressure falls on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tasked with sheltering migrant kids and finding relatives or guardians in the U.S. In daily calls, White House officials are pressing HHS and other agencies to free up space for children packed into crowded Border Patrol stations.

The children, mostly from Central America, are crossing the border in record numbers, deepening a humanitarian crisis for Biden that is one of his first major tests in office.

Officials said one of the main White House aides exerting pressure on HHS is Susan Rice, Biden's domestic policy adviser.

Officials told Reuters Rice has criticized what she sees as an unacceptably slow pace of releasing children to sponsors.

HHS officials worry that speeding up the vetting process too much could lead children to be released into unsafe situations.

An HHS spokesman said government agencies were working together to try to get children out of crowded border patrol stations but conceded that Zoom and phone calls with the administration can get heated.

The tensions within the administration - which have not previously been reported in detail - are emerging as the crisis seems likely to deepen.

According to an internal U.S. government estimate reviewed by Reuters, U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects to arrest more unaccompanied children in 2021 than in any year since record-keeping began in 2010.