Number of unaccompanied children at border facilities drops 84 percent in a month: official

The number of unaccompanied migrant children held at border facilities plunged 84 percent in one month, a White House official told CNN on Thursday.

The official said there were 954 children in border facilities as of Wednesday, following a peak of 5,676 on March 28, according to earlier Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures.

Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized President Biden’s policies at the border, with GOP lawmakers consistently hammering the White House over the surge of migrants.

Biden has argued that the influx of migrants at the border is due to natural seasonal migration patterns, while Republicans say it is due to his relaxed border policies.

The Biden administration began speeding up the processing of migrants earlier this month, moving unaccompanied children out of facilities quicker and using Trump-era policies to turn away 60 percent of adults who arrived at the border.

Unaccompanied children are now being held for an average of 28 hours, the White House official told CNN. Children were spending an average of 133 hours at CBP facilities in late March.

Unaccompanied children are not supposed to be in CBP facilities for more than 72 hours.