Joe Biden plans ‘Ellis Island-style’ entry points as ‘crisis’ grows at US-Mexico border

Migrants hoping to request asylum in the US protest at their campsite outside El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana

Credit: JORGE DUENES /REUTERS

Joe Biden’s administration plans to turn a pair of detention centres for families crossing the US-Mexico border into Ellis Island-type entry points that will release them into America in less than 72 hours.

Families will undergo medical examinations and criminal background checks, and then be released with instructions to later appear in court for their cases to be heard.

The possibility of giving them Covid-19 vaccinations when they arrive at the border is also under discussion by US officials.

It came amid a surge in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally, and fears that could soar further in the coming weeks.

Republicans have called the situation at the border a "crisis" and warned speeding up releases from detention centres would worsen it.

But Mr Biden is under pressure from many Democrats who argue unaccompanied children and families are not being let out of custody fast enough.

Dareli Matamoros, a girl from Honduras, holds a sign asking President Joe Biden to let her in at a border crossing in Tijuana

Credit: GUILLERMO ARIAS /AFP

There were 4,500 arrests at the border on Wednesday, nearly double the average daily figure in January, and similar to the level in May 2019 when Donald Trump introduced a crackdown.

It also emerged that Mr Biden’s administration is considering using a military base in Virginia, 1,500 miles from the border, to house unaccompanied migrant children.

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Fort Lee, a US Army base, may be used.

The US president is also sending a team to the border.

A White House spokesman said: “President Biden has asked senior members of his team to travel to the border region, in order to provide a full briefing to him, on the government response to the influx of unaccompanied minors.

"And ‘[he wants] an assessment of additional steps that can be taken to ensure the safety and care of these children."

A US Border Patrol agent delivers a young asylum seeker and his family to a bus station in Brownsville, Texas

Credit: John Moore /Getty Images North America 

James Comer, a Republican congressman, said: "There is no question there’s a crisis at the border. It’s Joe Biden’s fault. Joe Biden has signaled to the world that he’s not going to take border security seriously."

Henry Cuellar, a Democrat congressman representing a Texas district on the border, said: "We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border.

"Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic."

In the early 20th Century millions of immigrants entered America through Ellis Island in New York, then the busiest US immigration inspection station, where processing took just hours.

The Biden administration will quickly process and release incoming migrant families at the Dilley and Karnes City detention centres in Texas.

A third, smaller family detention centre in Pennsylvania is already empty after families there were released last week.

A volunteer (R) welcomes a member of a group of asylum seekers allowed to cross from a migrant camp in Mexico into the US in February

Credit: John Moore /Getty Images North America 

Dan Klein, chair of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, which works with asylum seekers in Texas, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had alerted his organisation to the changes at the detention centres.

Mr Klein said: "They’re trying to make it less about detention, and more about helping people on their way."

Meanwhile, ICE staff have been told in an email that levels of unaccompanied minors and families arriving this year were expected to be the "highest numbers observed in over 20 years," the Washington Post reported.

The email said the aim would be to process and release 100 families a day from the detention centres.

But even speeding up processing might not be enough to cope with the influx, and some of those arriving may have to be placed in hotels in Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.

There are currently 7,700 unaccompanied minors in custody after crossing the border, the highest level since 2019.

An average of 321 children per day crossed by themselves in the week ending March 1.

The daily figure in early January, before Mr Biden took office, was 47.