61,000 Unaccompanied Illegal Alien Children Have Entered U.S. Since October |

Upwards of 61,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children have flooded the U.S. southern border since October, according to the Washington Examiner.

The mass entry of these children is being referred to as a “record high,” dwarfing the numbers of previous years. The 2018 fiscal year saw 49,100 cross — the current fiscal year tops this number, and two months still remain before totals are finalized, according to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report.

“The number of UAC (unaccompanied children) illegally entering the United States during this fiscal year has risen to levels we have never before seen,” Jonathan Hayes, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at DHS, told the Examiner.

No less than 11,000 UACs were in custody with HHS in any month throughout the 2019 fiscal year, and a maximum of 14,000 was held in December.

Despite these numbers, there is no evidence of overcrowding, as the government body has had a surplus of beds for each month from October to June. The number of unoccupied beds hovered around 3,000 in some months, the HHS report details.

The average stay in an HHS facility is declining. The month of November had a reported high of over 3 months average stay, while the months of April to June showed average stays at approximately a month and a half.

The time spent in a facility may be downtrending, but the cost of these migrants is soaring. $230 million has been expended on everything from toiletries to snacks, according to an Examiner report.

The border crises has taken center stage in political theater recently with talks of unfair treatment and “concentration-camp” conditions.

However, testament from Brian S. Hastings, chief of Customs and Border Protection law enforcement operations, seems to contradict these schools of thought. He says facilities are equipped with, “shower trailers, chemical toilets and sinks, laundry trailers, sleeping mats, personal property storage boxes, lockers, power, kitchen equipment, food/snacks/water, clothing, and hygiene kits,” according the Examiner.

He adds that there has never been a shortage of these items.