ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — In his federal budget request Friday, President Joe Biden announced he would like more than $800 million to go to Central America to try to address the issues, which caused the border crisis. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported in March that its agents encountered more than 172,000 immigrants who tried to cross the southern border, which is a 71% increase from February. In fact, the agency reported its already encountered more people this year than it did all of fiscal year 2020.

“Eighteen thousand, eight hundred children arrived at our U.S.-Mexico border in March alone. That is higher than any previous month that we’ve seen,” said Dana Anderson, Bethany Christian Services vice president of Refugee and Immigrant Children Services.

Anderson said she expects those numbers to continue through September and would rather those unaccompanied children be housed in a home, not in a migrant facility.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said last week that he was approached by the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the possibility of making the Orange County Convention Center into a migrant facility to house 5,000 unaccompanied children. He said he declined.

“While it’s certainly better for a child to be in one of these influx centers than the detention centers at the border, what’s ultimately best is for them to be in a safe and loving foster home while they wait to reunite with their mom and their dad,” Anderson said.

Bethany Christian Services helps house unaccompanied children temporarily in foster homes. 

Nationwide, the nonprofit can help house 300 children, with 24 of those in its Florida site. Anderson hopes those numbers can increase.