Commentary: Biden Admin Rewarding Federal Employees Paid Leave if They Provide Care for Migrants at Border

The Biden administration is apparently feeling the pressure of the troubling humanitarian crisis (arguably of its own making) at the southern border.

So much so, that even The New York Times is describing a recent plea to federal employees to take a paid vacation to help care for the overflow of migrant children currently in government custody as a “desperate” one.

Said “desperate plea” was reportedly sent last week to federal employees of agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and NASA: “Will you consider taking a four-month paid leave from your job to help care for migrant children in government-run shelters packed with new arrivals at the border?” as the NYT described it on April 10.

“The request to much of the federal work force came from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is at the heart of a frantic effort by the Biden administration to keep up with a surge in young people crossing the southwestern border hoping to reunite with relatives already in the United States,” it explained.

This comes as the federal government’s capacity to house migrant children is being strained well beyond its limits.

The Department of Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with accommodating unaccompanied minors once they cross into the U.S. interior and are apprehended by border security, is struggling to find places to keep the 20,000 children and teens currently in its custody. The nearly 17,000 government shelters available for this purpose are already at “103 percent of capacity,” according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as cited by the NYT.