Border Patrol Announces Plans To Hire Babysitters To Care For Immigrant Children

Due to a reported surge in the number of unaccompanied migrant children coming into the United States, an official with Customs and Border Protection told reporters Tuesday that the agency plans on creating a new job category that would primarily consist of taking care of children who enter the country with no family.

According to The Washington Times, the need for such a position is critical, as statistics indicate U.S. Border Patrol agents are spending approximately 40 percent of their time taking care of unaccompanied children instead of patrolling the border and working in the field.

The plans aren’t set in stone, nor is the funding required to create the new position, but officials say they’re working on the logistics and that it’ll likely be 2020 before they get the new program off the ground.

“Border Patrol Processing Coordinators will take on processing, transportation, and custody responsibilities, which will free up agents for critical law enforcement operations,” Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost explained.

On the heels of several sick migrants who died in Border Patrol custody over the past year, the agency said they want to change the dynamic of the continued surge of people flowing into the country — many who are already sick and vulnerable.

Agents reportedly average 70 trips to the hospital per day, border-wide, for immigrants crossing the border who are sick.

National Border Patrol Council Brandon Judd explained that there used to be a position similar to the proposed one when Border Patrol was part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

He also explained that while it’s great that the agency is pushing for the new strategy, it’s a typical government reactive approach to an emergency situation.

“This is a fantastic idea, this is something we have been pushing now for, heavens, six or seven years,” Judd said. “In typical government fashion, they wait until a Category 5 hurricane breaks out and we’re now behind the eight ball again.”

We never thought we would say this.

But Border Patrol agents are looking to add babysitters to the list of people who work for themhttps://t.co/LolO8uEnRV

— John and Ken (@johnandkenshow) May 29, 2019

While the details on how many babysitters would be hired and what the hiring process would entail haven’t been announced, Judd guessed that the agency would likely need between 1,000 and 1,500 to take the pressure off agents and allow them to return to normal duties.

Agents have blamed the surge in unaccompanied children and families on a strategy that drug smugglers use to distract agents. By sending large groups of women and children across, it reportedly gives smugglers the time they need to send drug shipments across the border.

According to statistics from Pew Research Center, agents apprehended almost 54,000 unaccompanied migrant children on the southern U.S. border in 2018.