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\"We've been sounding the alarms on this for months,\" an administration official said Wednesday of the influx of families at the border. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration's position was that it was time for \"Congress and the courts\" to act.

Local officials in El Paso have accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement of dumping 200 migrants at a time at bus stations and at privately run shelters that say they are out of room.

El Pasoans helped last night and early this am after ICE left hundreds of migrants on the street in the dead of winter. But 200 or more on their way today and possibly another 200 tomorrow. The urgency right now is hotel rooms for the migrants. Pls donate https://t.co/iwsMasG632

— Veronica Escobar (@vgescobar) December 24, 2018
/>U.S. officials, however, say they have few options. Authorities are restricted from holding children for long periods of time in detention under a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement. \"After decades of inaction by Congress, the government remains severely constrained in its ability to detain and promptly remove families with no legal basis to remain in the U.S.,\" according to a statement released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. \"To mitigate the risk of holding family units past the timeframe allotted to the government, ICE has curtailed reviews of post-release plans from families apprehended along the southwest border. ICE is redoubling its efforts to work with local and state officials and NGO partners in the area so they are prepared to provide assistance with transportation or other services.\"Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, told ABC News on Wednesday that she agrees border authorities need more resources to support families and that the Obama administration shares part of the blame because it didn't do more to respond to changing migration patterns.\"It's a bipartisan problem,\" said Escobar. \"This is something that should have been addressed four years ago.\" Administration officials told reporters on Wednesday that an internal government investigation was under way regarding the recent death in Alamogordo, New Mexico, just north of El Paso.The administration official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity declined to comment on whether the administration believed the local hospital acted appropriately by releasing the child with a high fever. But at one point, the official said medical personnel there \"did all they could.\"

A 7-year-old girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, had died earlier this month. Officials said that since her death, additional emergency and medical personnel were placed along remote border checkpoints like the one where she arrived. Officials were in the process of investigating that death when the second child died.

Another looming crisis is the estimated 15,000 children in custody in shelters across the country. These are mostly teens and older children who crossed alone and are waiting to be paired with sponsors. One shelter, Tornillo in Texas, has said it won't accept any more kids and is looking to close its doors by mid January.

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