The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recently reduced funding that goes towards numerous programs such as cancer and AIDS research in order to pay for housing the growing number of detained immigrant children. HHS Secretary Alex Azar laid out his plan to Senator Patty Murray. Azar plans to reallocate about $226 million towards funding for the current fiscal year to the Unaccompanied Alien Children program in the Office of Refugee Resettlement. $80 million of that money will come from other refugee programs, while the rest is being taken from programs in the HHS. $16.7 million will be taken from Head Start, a program that provides early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to families with low-income. $5.7 million will be taken from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and $13.3 million from the National Cancer Institute. There are also smaller amounts of money being taken away from programs that focus on substance abuse, women’s shelters, and mental and maternal health

Data from the New York Times shows that the population of migrant children has reached a total of 12,800 this month. As of May 2017, there were 2,400 children in custody. The Trump administration, which has been trying to decrease the number of Central American migrants crossing the border, has not been too effective due to statistics showing that roughly the same number of children are still crossing the border.

 

Photo Courtesy of Vox