San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
U.S. CONSIDERS TWO MORE SITES IN STATE TO SHELTER MIGRANT CHILDREN
Federal authorities are considering the use of two more facilities in California to temporarily house the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the southern border with Mexico.
The Long Beach Convention Center could soon be tapped, said a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. And the Pentagon on Friday approved the use of Camp Roberts, a California Army National Guard base inland along the Central Coast.
The San Diego Convention Center, which had been used as a homeless shelter earlier during the pandemic, has been turned into a temporary facility for teenage girls through mid-july.
The Long Beach Post reported Thursday that migrant children could be housed in the convention center’s 45,000square-foot arena. Agents from the Homeland Security Department, which oversees border security, were seen visiting the center Wednesday.
John Braun, assistant general manager of the center, declined to comment. City officials could not be reached Friday.
As of Saturday, it was undetermined if the the Department of Health and Human Services would utilize Camp Roberts. HHS said Saturday that the camp is “under active consideration,” but that the department has not yet finalized its decision.
“When HHS decides to activate an Emergency Influx Site for unaccompanied migrant children we will notify state and local authorities as well as members of Congress,” the department said in a statement.
As of Friday, 13,359 children were in the custody of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement after being transferred from Customs and Border Protection.
The number of children apprehended by Border Patrol has increased steadily over the last year.
Last month, Border Patrol agents took custody of more than 18,800 unaccompanied children — significantly more than the previous one-month high of nearly 11,900 in May 2019, according to preliminary figures released to the Washington Post on Friday and confirmed by the Los Angeles Times.
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, is required to transfer unaccompanied children in its custody to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours.
That process has been stymied as more children have been arriving daily than are able to be transferred out.
Using temporary facilities such as convention centers and military bases is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to speed up the transfer of children out of Border Patrol custody, as the administration works through the lengthy process of increasing state-licensed facilities. Most of the temporary facilities that have opened are in Texas.