The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said on Tuesday its acting commissioner is resigning as House Democrats passed a $4.5 billion funding package to ease a migrant surge that has subjected children detained at US-Mexico border to overcrowded conditions.
AT LEAST 100 MIGRANT CHILDREN RETURNED TO BORDER STATION
John Sanders, who led CBP since April, will leave his post on July 5, the agency said.
Attorneys raised alarms last week after finding more than 300 migrant children in an overcrowded Texas border patrol station, where they said some had been held for weeks without adequate food and water. Most of the children were transferred to other facilities but then 100 were moved back to the station in Clint, Texas, CBP officials told reporters on Tuesday.
Accounts from lawyers of children wearing soiled clothes and older children caring for younger ones has increased criticism by immigration activists and Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Sanders departure less than three months after being elevated to the post in a reshuffling of the Department of Homeland Security drew criticism.
“Trump’s latest leadership change only worsens the chaos at the department,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “Leadership changes won’t change the fact that the Trump Administration’s cruel and abhorrent immigration policies are complete failures.”