Acting Head Of Customs And Border Protection Plans To Step Down

Updated at 1:40 p.m. ET

The acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to step down in the coming weeks, according to two agency officials.

John Sanders is expected to make his resignation effective July 5, according to the officials, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made to agency employees.

Sanders has held the post for just over two months, after President Trump tapped his predecessor, Kevin McAleenan, to be acting chief of Homeland Security.

Customs and Border Protection has come under fire in recent days amid revelations that nearly 300 migrant children — from infants to 17-year-olds — had been detained in a remote Border Patrol station in West Texas without adequate food, water and sanitation.

All but 30 of the children were transferred out of the center in Clint, Texas, after revelations last week that they were being held in squalid conditions.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the area, said Monday that the children were supposed to have been moved to other facilities. But a CBP official confirmed Tuesday that 100 of those children have been moved back to the same Border Patrol station because there wasn’t room in child shelters run by Health and Human Services.

The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a supplemental spending bill to send money to agencies working to address the needs of migrants arriving at the U.S. Border with Mexico.

As NPR’s Kelsey Snell reported, last-minute requirements were added to the $4.5 billion legislation that would obligate CBP to establish hygiene and medical standards for children and a 90-day limit on keeping kids in temporary emergency shelters.

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