WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the U.S. response to a surge of unaccompanied minors at the southwest border on Tuesday, saying the region was on track to see more people trying to enter than any time in the last 20 years.
Majorkas said the government is creating a joint processing center to transfer the children, as young as six, to the custody of Health and Human Services and is trying to find additional shelters for them. “The situation we are currently facing at the southwest border is a difficult one. We are tackling it,” he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
