Children and teens from Mexico and Central America inside a Border Patrol detention facility in Nogales, Ariz., in 2014.Listen:
A new surge of unaccompanied children from Central American countries is expected at the U.S. southern border, and officials asked Congress Wednesday for more money to handle them.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske asked the House Appropriations Committee to fund resources for an estimated 75,000 children whom the agency believes may arrive at the ports of entry before the end of the current fiscal year.
Already, the number of minors arriving at the border is growing, with 20,000 apprehended at the border in the first five months of the federal fiscal year, Kerlikowske said. That is double the number from a year earlier.
Two years ago, more than 100,000 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala crossed the border, mostly in Texas. About 1,000 of them were brought to Arizona, where they were housed for processing in Nogales and then sent to other places, including a privately run shelter on Tucson's near north side.
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