TEXAS — The Biden administration acknowledged border crossings are on track to hit a 20 year high. Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas said most families and single adults are sent back to their home countries because of the pandemic. But, the surge in unaccompanied children is proving the biggest challenge.

What You Need To Know

  • Local experts say the federal government needs to send additional resources to the border to assist people as they cross the border

  • The border is especially in need of officers who are trained in child welfare and trauma

  • Kids arriving without parents will not be turned away

"The situation at the southwest border is difficult.  We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so," Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday.

Mayorkas made it clear kids arriving without parents will not be turned away, which is a clear break from the previous administration.

Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said the issue at the border is a processing one. She believes in order to better manage the situation, the federal government needs to send additional resources to the border to assist people as they cross the border, and that includes officers who are trained in child welfare and trauma.

"The main thing that we need to do is to see this as a processing question, not as a security threat, not as a crisis at our borders, but as an all of government effort to process in people who under the law have the right to apply for asylum and who need to be treated with care and dignity," Gilman said in a recent interview with Capital Tonight's Reena Diamante.

Later this month, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas will lead a Senate delegation to the border and also hold a roundtable with local officials. Cruz's press advisory said it was in response to the "immigrant crisis." Recently, Republican Congressional lawmakers were in El Paso, criticizing Biden's policies and claiming that border agents told him dangerous people were crossing.

Mayorkas said migration surges have happened before, for example in 2014 and 2019. He said the administration is taking steps to secure the border and enlisting the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to safeguard Americans and migrants.

"Because of the last administration's policies, we had a backlog a log jam of people who would have been processed if the law had been followed in recent years, and so they have been trapped in northern Mexico or trapped in their home countries, and so it really shouldn't be a surprise that there are increasing numbers right now, as these cases begin to be handled properly," Gilman said.