ID made in death at migrant facility

An IT specialist from the Department of Health and Human Services was identified Sunday as the federal employee who reportedly collapsed and later died at a sinceclosed Houston facility for unaccompanied migrant children.

The employee, whom the Washington Post identified as Mary Brodie-Henderson, was based at the HHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., but was working recently at the emergency shelter for several hundred migrant children. She died at a local hospital, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in the reported email to employees.

A LinkedIn page for Brodie-Henderson states she joined HHS in December 2019 and lived in Maryland.

HHS officials on Sunday did not respond to a request for comment.

Federal officials said the death on Friday was unrelated to the chaotic transfer of the children that unfolded the next day. Mayor Sylvester Turner said, after speaking with White House and other federal officials, that 500 girls were removed from the Houston-based National Association of Christian Churches warehouse.

The evacuation followed Brodie-Henderson’s death and concerns by Houston immigrant advocate groups of crowding and other unsafe conditions at the shelter.

Turner said about 30 percent of the migrant children were expected to be reunited with family or placed with sponsors. The rest would be taken to shelters with vacant beds in Texas and elsewhere. He was scheduled to tour the church-run facility over the weekend but the surprise closure halted those plans, he said Sunday.

“They decided to go on and put the young women in those other places where there was ample space,” Turner said.

A spokesperson for Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said that HHS “needs to explain how it is making housing decisions” during the migrant surge and what prompted the facility closure. Sen. John Cornyn’s office said he was unavailable Sunday and did not provide comment on the facility closure.

The warehouse operated for about two weeks, growing from 300 to 500 girls — ages 13 to 17 — who were then removed Saturday from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport-area facility. The opening, officials said, was part of a government plan to manage a surge of minors arriving at Mexico border. U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who voiced worries that the warehouse lacked the space for the teens, said most of the girls had a parent or another relative in the states.

José Ortega, the church group’s founder and president, on Saturday condemned HHS amid the shuffling of migrant children and contends Becerra rushed him into a federal contract to house the unaccompanied minors. And the federal government has yet to reimburse him, he said.

The National Association of Christian Churches for years has been associated with disaster relief but had never created a shelter for migrant children.

The pastor did not respond to requests for comment Sunday and could not be reached on his cell phone — which was disconnected. A lawyer whom Ortega said he had retained did not return a phone call.

Ortega on Saturday said he was put in touch with HHS officials through U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who asked him to help with the surge in migrant children. Becerra called him the night of March 31, he said, and that their last communication was April 1.

Buses of children arrived at the facility two days later, and Lee welcomed the facility for its potential to house 500 minors.

The congresswoman could not be reached for comment Sunday. In earlier remarks, she said she was notified Saturday morning that the children would be transferred. She did not address allegations of poor living conditions at the facility.

“The girls were treated with respect during their stay at Houston emergency intake unit,” she said in a statement.

Among the reasons for the closure, Turner also said the federal contract with NACC was still in the works.

Federal records show NACC Disaster Services, a branch of Ortega’s church group, started registration paperwork related to a government contract April 5 and that their account activated about nine days later. The amount slated for the church group was not immediately available.

Ortega’s wife, Angelica Ortega, is listed as the contract’s point of contact on the federal System for Award Management database.

The National Association of Christian Churches last year received a pandemicrelated disaster assistance loan of $150,000 from the Small Business Administration.