San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Tent city:
Members of Congress tour site.
TORNILLO — Members of Congress who toured the tent city sheltering migrant children here on Saturday afternoon said conditions inside were good but reiterated calls to reunite families who had been separated during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
For about an hour, the group, which included U.S. Reps. Beto O’Rourke and Joaquin Castro, toured the emergency shelter, where they spoke with some of the children between the ages of 13 and 17 being held there. The shelter was erected at the port of entry in Tornillo last week, at first housing only boys. After the tour, O’Rourke said he did not know the exact number of kids there, but said before entering the facility that it was just under 300 children, adding that the number changed daily.
The tour was closed to media.
The Congress members said the kids have access to food, showers and medical care, and they are each allowed two 10-minute phone calls each week. Phones are available for the children to report any complaints of abuse or harassment.
Of those at the facility Saturday, 23 had been separated from their families, O’Rourke said, and some told the members that their parents had already been deported back to their home countries. The children said they were from Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries in Central America, Castro said.
“Their general attitude seemed to be positive, given the conditions,” O’Rourke said of the teenagers. “But nothing makes up for a policy implemented by this administration that takes kids away from their parents here at the U.S.Mexico border.”
The facility began housing girls for the first time Saturday, after seven girls were brought there in the morning, Castro said. Some children said they had been held for up to three months, while others said one or two months.
The facility is run by BCFS Health and Human Services, a San Antoniobased nonprofit. Earlier last week, the director of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, an El Paso legal aid group, confirmed it would be providing services to the children in Tornillo, including “know your rights” talks, screenings and referrals.
Despite a positive impression of the conditions, members said the children’s movements are limited by the desert heat, and they are still there without their families.
“It’s clear that the staff are doing their best to care for the kids,” Castro said. “Still, the fact that they’re out here in 105degree weather, in the desert, is a symptom, and I think a moral failing, on behalf of the United States government.”
In addition to the physical conditions, O’Rourke said he was concerned about a new policy that allows the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has custody of the children, to share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the family members with which children are later placed.
O’Rourke toured the facility almost a week after he said he was denied access after leading a rally outside the camp on Father’s Day. Others, including a group of U.S. mayors who visited Tornillo’s port of entry Thursday, were also turned away and told to submit a tour request.
A BCFS spokeswoman said Saturday that O’Rourke had been scheduled to take a tour and see the children last Sunday, but that he canceled the visit. In response, O’Rourke said the spokeswoman was wrong and reiterated that he wasn’t allowed to tour the shelter or see the kids last week.
Another rally in Tornillo is planned for today.