CBP chief to inspect Border Patrol facilities housing minors

While the images of migrant children detained in chain-linked cages still plague the Trump administration, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection will travel to the southwestern border this week to see how the agency's facilities can be modified to better care for waves of families and minors.

Kevin McAleenan, who has headed CBP throughout the administration and was recently confirmed by the Senate as its commissioner, said he will travel to Texas on Wednesday to meet with his agents, nongovernmental organizations and others to figure out ways to improve conditions for the growing number of children coming across the border.

"We want to make sure we have the right type of facilities and professionals engaging them," McAleenan said during an interview with USA TODAY's Editorial Board on Monday. "We’re trying to secure that border first and foremost. But we also want to make sure we have the right approach to addressing people that we do apprehend."

The Trump administration instituted a "zero tolerance" immigration enforcement policy this year that led to the separation of more than 2,600 families seeking asylum. A federal judge halted those separations and ordered the administration to reunify all those families, a process that is ongoing.

The policy has not deterred the mostly Central American families from embarking on the dangerous trek north. In August, 12,744 members of family units were apprehended by the Border Patrol, the highest monthly total during the Trump administration.

McAleenan said those numbers continue to increase in September. He said there have been several days in the past two weeks where more than 50 percent of people caught by the Border Patrol were unaccompanied minors or family units, an unprecedented shift after decades when undocumented border crossers were mostly single men.

That's why he wants to spend more time analyzing ways to modernize Border Patrol facilities. And it's why he'll travel to Central America this month to meet with his counterparts in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to see how those governments can improve living conditions so fewer people feel compelled to flee.

The U.S. government has dedicated $2.6 billion to those countries since 2015 through the Alliance for Prosperity, a program designed to strengthen law enforcement actions and economic opportunities for residents. The Trump administration's two annual budget proposals have called for massive cuts to State Department aid to the Central American countries, including a proposed 36 percent cut for fiscal year 2018, according to an analysis by the Washington Office on Latin America.

McAleenan said those proposals will not stop his agency, or the State Department, from looking for other ways to bolster security and economic progress in the region. He said he will use his trip to Central America to learn more about the conditions there and how the United States can help improve them.

"I really want to understand the push factors," he said.

During the meeting with USA TODAY, McAleenan did not answer questions about the Border Patrol agent accused of being a serial murderer in Texas. Juan David Ortiz, a supervisory agent with CBP, is charged with four counts of murder and a variety of other charges, including the attempted kidnapping of a woman who escaped and alerted police to his whereabouts.