Head of US border agency resigns amid uproar over migrant children

HOUSTON, Texas - The acting head of US Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, resigned on Tuesday amid an uproar over the discovery of migrant children being held in pitiful conditions at one of the agency's stations in Texas.

Acting Commissioner John Sanders' departure deepened the sense of crisis and added to the rapid turnover inside the agencies responsible for enforcing US President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration priorities as the country deals with record numbers of migrant families coming across the border.

In a message to employees, Sanders said he would step down on July 5. He did not elaborate.

Hours after Sanders' departure became public, two officials told The Associated Press that he was being replaced by Mark Morgan, who was named acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement just last month. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the move and declined to be identified.

In an interview last week, Sanders blamed the problems in detention on a lack of money and called on Congress to pass a $4.5 billion emergency funding bill to address the crisis. The House approved the legislation on Tuesday night, setting up a showdown with the Senate where Republican leaders plan approval of a different bill this week that does not offer as many protections and services for migrants.

The bill contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for the unaccompanied migrant children. It also seeks to set up protocols for the care of children, mandate improved standards of care centers and provide translation services - provisions reportedly not in the Senate version.

At the White House, Trump said that he did not ask for Sanders' resignation - adding that he doesn't think he has ever spoken to the man - but that he is "moving some people around into different locations" amid the crisis.

The unprecedented surge of migrant families has left US immigration detention centers severely overcrowded and taxed the government's ability to provide medical care and other attention. Six children have died since September after being detained by border agents.

US-Mexico border has long been a deadly crossing between ports of entry. A total of 283 migrant deaths were recorded last year; the toll so far this year has not been released.

On Monday, Mexican newspaper La Jornada published a photograph of two bodies - a man and his 23-month-old daughter lay face down in shallow water along the bank of the Rio Grande, his black shirt hiked up to his chest with the girl tucked inside. Her arm was draped around his neck suggesting she clung to him in her final moments.

According to journalist Julia Le Duc, who captured the photograph, the man, Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, frustrated because the family from El Salvador was unable to present themselves to US authorities and request asylum, tried to swim across the river on Sunday with his daughter, Valeria.

Ap - Xinhua

(China Daily 06/27/2019 page11)