White House officials, saying misinformation about U.S. policies helped drive a surge of illegal migrants from Central America across the Texas border, announced plans to detain more of them and to accelerate their court cases to deport them more quickly, the New York Times reports. Vice President Joseph Biden met in Guatemala on Friday with leaders of three countries where most migrants come from — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — to seek help in conveying the message that there are no new legal channels to enter the U.S. and that those crossing illegally will be deported.
The Department of Homeland Security is rushing to open more detention centers intended for families with children caught entering illegally and will expand the use of monitoring devices, such as electronic ankle bracelets, to track migrants after they are released. Immigration officers and judges will be reassigned on an emergency basis to speed cases in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where most migrants are entering illegally. The administration is trying to quell rampant rumors that U.S. border authorities are offering entry permits to parents traveling with young children after they are caught. The Associated Press reports tht the Border Patrol will fly nearly 300 Central American migrants from south Texas to California for processing as the government seeks to ease the workload on Texas agents.