Nearly 600 migrant children at a military base in West Texas had spent 40 days or longer in reportedly poor conditions. The United States government has converted the military base into an emergency site for unaccompanied minors. Over 50 children had been confined at the Fort Bliss US Army base for longer than 45 days.
Makeshift government shelters not suitable for children
Another makeshift government shelter is a Houston warehouse that has been shuttered. It has poor living conditions, including soiled clothes, limited access to showers, and undercooked food. Unchaperoned children confined at the two Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) emergency housing facilities, which are not licensed for the caring of minors, also reported feeling desperate and sad while in the custody of the US government. Attorney Leecia Welch cited this from her recent interviews with over 30 migrant boys and girls.
Overall, almost 1,700 unaccompanied boys and girls had been confined at the West Texas military base for at least a month as of May 14. This government data was shared with attorneys representing migrant minors in a landmark court case, reported Yahoo News.
Democrat Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who toured Fort Bliss on Friday, spoke to several migrant children who had spent 48 days at the military installation. The military installation is the largest of over a dozen emergency facilities the HHS has set up to house unaccompanied migrant young people.
Escobar represents the El Paso district where Fort Bliss is located. She called the prolonged duration of their housing "alarming." Escobar stated, "I'm not a fan of the mega-sites. I think that they are not conducive to what we need to be doing for kids. I acknowledge these are emergency intake facilities but there are children who have been in there for long periods of time," reported CBS News.
According to Welch, numerous migrant children reported talk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts among several young migrants in the Houston warehouse. She expounded on severe mental health deterioration among some minors she interviewed, reported GWN.
Fort Bliss is holding approximately 4,500 unaccompanied minors on Friday, Escobar stated. It has come under mounting criticism from advocates for migrant children. Unlike traditional HHS shelters for migrant youth, the military base and other emergency sites have lower standards of care and are not licensed by state authorities to care for minors.
As of late last week, over 13,000 of the 20,000 migrant children in HHS care were being confined in the 13 emergency facilities the department has set up in convention centers, military bases, camps for oil workers, and other sites, as indicated by internal documents.
President Joe Biden's administration has already been prompted to abruptly close two emergency sites. Over 300 migrant boys, as of late April, had spent more than 50 days at a Dallas convention center, another HHS emergency site without access to the outdoors, according to government data shared with attorneys representing migrant children in the court case over the landmark Flores agreement. The agreement governs the care of minors in United States immigration custody.
