Approximately 6,000 children at Pomona shelter find homes with family, sponsors

The number of migrant children moving from an emergency shelter at Fairplex in Pomona into homes with relatives or sponsors topped 5,700 in early September, officials said.

A total of 5,789 children who crossed the U.S.Mexico border alone have been reunified with families or other sponsors as of Thursday, according to Cristina Kapustij, a site spokesperson for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The figure is more than double the number officials reported on July 23, when 2,461 minors had transitioned out of the temporary shelter.

Meanwhile, the number of minors who remained at the shelter Thursday was 1,075. The Pomona site, which opened May 1, has seen its highest single day census count rise as high as 2,158, Kapustij said via email. The Pomona location can accommodate up to 2,500 children.

In total, the number of children served at the Pomona site as of Thursday was 6,925.

There are about 14,288 children currently in HHS care as of Tuesday, according to officials.

HHS officials have said the goal is to place unaccompanied minors detained at the southern U.S. border in stable homes as soon as possible following their arrival at emergency shelters. Migrant children are housed at the shelters until they can be placed with sponsors or reunited with relatives in the U.S. A majority of the children come with names and contact information in their pockets and tend to be reunified in 10 to 14 days, HHS officials have said.

In July, U.S border agents encountered 212,000 migrants, a 21-year high, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Encounters of unaccompanied children saw a 24% increase, with 18,962 encounters in July compared with 15,234 in June.