Homeland Security Chief Urges Patience with “Stressful Challenge” Along U.S.-Mexico Border

The surging number of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has posed a “stressful challenge” for the Biden administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged Monday, while insisting that the influx of undocumented children has not reached a “crisis” level.

Mayorkas also announced that migrant families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration will be allowed to reunify either within the United States or their country of origin. The Biden administration has established a task force to identify parents of separated children.

The decision to allow reunification within the U.S. follows a slew of Friday phone calls between Mayorkas and the foreign ministers of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The secretary announced that Michelle Brané, long-time director at the Women’s Refugee Commission, will serve as executive director of the newly formed Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, and the effort will enlist the help of nongovernmental organizations.

In addition to CBS News, this article appeared in Yahoo News.