CONVENTION CENTER TO SHELTER ASYLUM SEEKERS
City, county agree to temporary care site for unaccompanied children
The San Diego Convention Center will become a temporary shelter for a number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, authorities said Monday.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher said that over the weekend they responded to a request by federal Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is seeking temporary housing for children arriving at the border without parents.
Officials did not say when children would begin arriving, how many children they expect, or where they are coming from.
The Biden administration is rushing to get about 5,000 children out of Border Patrol detention and into Health and Human Services facilities that are better suited
for young people. It also is expediting the release of some of the children in HHS custody to parents and other sponsors in the United States. But each day, border agents are apprehending far more children than HHS is releasing each day.
San Diego officials said the HHS can shelter children at the convention center for about three months, with an expected average stay of 30 to 35 days for each child. They will receive food, medical care, sleeping space and showers.
“The City and County will support this federally funded effort by providing vital services to these vulnerable children who came to our country seeking safety,” Gloria and Fletcher said in a statement. “We are working closely with our federal partners to finalize the details for preparing to receive these young people and provide them with care, compassion and a safe space to transition while they are reunited with families or sponsors.”
Some of the children became separated from their families during their journey, some are orphans, and others were sent by parents who hoped they could flee dangerous conditions in their home countries, Gloria and Fletcher said.
Authorities will create a secure recreation area outside of the facility, but the children won’t be permitted to leave the convention center until they are reunited with family or guardians, the statement said.
That’s a good sign to some advocates. Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s US-Mexico Border program in San Diego, said he was encouraged by talk of a recreation area for the children. He said he hopes that the convention center will be adapted to meet the children’s needs and won’t become like some processing centers in other states that further traumatized the children.
“My hope is that the convention center is not created to be like a detention center,” he said. “I hope the facility can be made to resemble a nonrestrictive school or an education center.”
It’s also good that the convention center is large enough to allow for social distancing, he said.
The HHS Refugee Resettlement Program will fund the temporary shelter, partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Every child in our care deserves a safe place to rest and to know their well-being is addressed,” Becerra said in a statement. “The County and City of San Diego has generously offered to partner with the Department as we abide by the law to provide unaccompanied children with food, sanitation and shelter. Our task is to protect the health and safety of unaccompanied children, who are under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, while they go through their immigration proceedings.”
Children under 18 can apply for asylum on their own if they want to have a separate case from their parents, or if they don’t have a parent or guardian in the U.S. available to care for them, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Border apprehensions of young people have surged recently, national data show. In February, 9,297 unaccompanied minors were apprehended crossing the border, according to a report by the Pew Center for Research. That’s up 63 percent from January, when 5,694 border crossers under 18 were apprehended.
The countries of origin have shifted since the 2019 surge in border activity. Among the border crossers last month, about 42 percent were from Mexico and 46 percent were from Central America, Pew said. In 2019, nearly 80 percent traveled from Central America.
U.S. authorities have changed gears, offering greater latitude to the youngest border crossers. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced over the weekend that officials will expel single adults and families, but not children, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, the administration is seeing its emergency facilities for immigrant children approach capacity almost as quickly as it can open them. The downtown Dallas convention center has 1,500 teenagers less than a week after opening and is expected to take in 500 more teens Monday, according to HHS. Its current capacity is 2,300 people.
The plan to shelter unaccompanied children at the San Diego Convention Center comes as local agencies are winding down Operation Shelter to Home, which has provided about 4,000 homeless people with shelter at the convention center during COVID-19.
Over the past year, the effort helped nearly 1,300 people and 43 families get into housing, officials said. The remaining residents will be offered beds in the city’s shelter system.