The Department of Health and Human Services has selected a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry near El Paso, Texas, as the first back-up site to temporarily house unaccompanied alien children who were apprehended by law enforcement after illegally crossing the Southwest border with or without adults, an official with knowledge of the plan told the Washington Examiner Thursday.
“The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with the support of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has selected Tornillo Land Port of Entry as a temporary shelter location for unaccompanied alien children cared for by HHS’ Administration for Children and Families. HHS will continue to keep local and congressional officials informed during this selection process,” Kenneth J. Wolfe, deputy director of communications for HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement.
Approximately 360 beds will be brought into “soft-sided structures with air conditioning” over the next few days “with expansion potential as needed,” Wolfe added.
A separate report stated 450 beds will be made available.
HHS worked with DHS to select the facility and said temporarily housing underage youths at the port of entry will not have an impact on law enforcement and customs operations.
The Trump administration is also moving forward on a plan to tentatively house unaccompanied minors in tent cities located on three Texas military bases due to increasing high border apprehensions and a shortage of beds for the underage immigrants.
“[Health and Human Services] is running out of space because of the implications of the zero tolerance policy, but also because we continue to see this uptick in numbers,” an official confirmed to the Washington Examiner Tuesday evening.
HHS officials are looking at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, and Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, the official confirmed.
Government officials will travel to Fort Bliss in the next few weeks to look at the property, but it’s not clear whether the tent outposts would be located indoors or outdoors.
“DoD officials will join HHS staff to tour vacant properties available for potential future use. HHS will make the determination if any of the three sites assessed are suitable and selected for unaccompanied alien children program operations. HHS will continue to keep local and congressional officials informed during this assessment and selection process,” a spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families at HHS confirmed.
Currently, 10,000 unaccompanied minors — known as UACs — are being held in shelters overseen by HHS, and the facilities are at 95 percent capacity.
The number of UACs apprehended by border officers has doubled from 3,100 in October 2017 to 6,400 in May.
The administration official clarified these tent cities would not house family units or groups of parents or guardians who arrive at the border with children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles family unit housing while HHS holds UACs.
Minors who are separated from adults due to the zero tolerance policy announced last month will be housed by HHS. Only adults from family units who are apprehended trying to illegally enter the country between ports of entry are prosecuted, not those who surrender at official ports of entry. Those who arrive at the ports will remain with their families as their requests for asylum are processed.
[Related: Jeff Sessions uses Bible to defend zero-tolerance border policy to church leaders]
The Justice Department announced in April additional immigration judges were being deployed to the border to deal with rising apprehension numbers. The move was meant to tackle the 700,000-person backlog of immigration cases in addition to the current surge.
