NASA’s Ames facilities might be used for migrant children

Unused school buildings, military bases around U.S. also under consideration

MOFFETT FIELD » As migration surges at the United States-Mexico border, the Biden administration is considering using vacant facilities at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children, according to the space agency.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked federal agencies to “determine whether they have currently vacant properties that might be available and suitable for potential future use as Temporary Influx Care Facilities for unaccompanied migrant children,” NASA said in a statement to this news organization Wednesday night.

NASA Ames and HHS are “coordinating a site assessment of some currently vacant property” at Moffett Field for “HHS personnel to determine whether certain facilities at the site might be suitable to temporarily provide shelter space in the future,” the statement said.

It’s unclear how long the site would be used for sheltering the children, if the federal government moves ahead. Darryl Waller, a NASA spokesman, didn’t offer additional details beyond the agency’s statement.

News of the possible use of facilities at NASA Ames as temporary shelter for migrant children was first reported by The New York Times. Unused school buildings and military bases around the country are also under consideration, the Times reported.

President Joe Biden’s administration has undone some border policies of former President Donald Trump. While maintaining a policy that allows border agents to turn away adult migrants at the border, or families, Biden has loosened the regulations for unaccompanied children, allowing them to remain in the U.S. while they are processed but creating a need for places to house them.

At a March 5 news conference, White House press

secretary Jen Psaki alluded to the idea more space would be needed beyond what U.S. Customs and Border Protection can provide.

“Obviously we’re going to have more kids … in the country since we have been letting unaccompanied minors stay, and the last administration immorally kicked them out,” Psaki said. “So, of course, we have to look for facilities and places where we can safely and humanely have these unaccompanied minors in the interim.”

The border has seen a steady increase in migration since April 2020 “due to ongoing violence, natural disasters, food insecurity, and poverty in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America,” the customs agency said in a recent statement.

New data from the agency showed a massive spike in February in the number of unaccompanied minors arriving

at the border, intensifying the pressure on the Biden administration.

Last month, a total of 100,441 people attempted to enter the country along the Southwest border, a 28% increase over January, though more than 72,000 of those were turned back, the agency said.

While nearly 5,600 unaccompanied minors came to the border in January, almost 9,500 arrived in February, according to the data, a roughly 61% increase.

Internal immigration data reviewed by CNN showed that as of Monday, more than 3,200 unaccompanied migrant children were in U.S. Border Patrol facilities, which are not intended for children. Under current law, children must be turned over to the care of Health and Human Services within 72 hours.

More than 1,300 children were held longer, the Times reported Monday.

HHS described evaluating Moffett Field as a possible overflow shelter for migrant children as the “prudent” thing to do, given the increasing numbers of children coming into their care. HHS said the site evaluation of Moffett Field was set to happen Thursday, and a decision on whether to use the property as possible shelters for children would be made “soon.”

In an emailed statement, HHS said it currently operates 13,450 licensed beds for migrant children, the highest in its history, but noted “additional capacity is critical in order to continue to provide a safe place for children to be released from border patrol stations.”

Maricela Gutierrez, executive director of the Bay Area-based Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, said no matter what the government calls these places for children, she views them as detention

centers that are “inhumane” and harmful for children.

“It was very disappointing to hear that President Biden is finding new loopholes to continue to detain children and families in private detention centers. President Biden was elected on a promise he made to the American people that he would release the children and free families in detention centers, and it seems he keeps finding ways to not keep that promise,” Gutierrez said in an interview Thursday.

“It’s a ruse on the American people to call it a shelter,” she said.

Moffett Field, a federal facility bordered by Mountain View and Sunnyvale, is “right in Google’s backyard,” Gutierrez said. Bay Area residents may not think of the region as an area that would tolerate detention of children, but they would be brought in on the

same roads Google employees use to get to and from work, she said.

The Biden administration also announced it would seek to invest $4 billion in the coming four years to “address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence, and economic devastation exacerbated by climate change,” coordinator for the southern border Roberta Jacobson said at a news conference Wednesday.

However, Jacobson and other federal officials have simultaneously tried to dissuade potential migrants from coming to the United States at this time.

“Neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U.S. in an irregular fashion. The border is not open,” Jacobson said.