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A tent city in the Texas desert, a symbol of mass detention of migrant teenagers by the Trump administration, is likely to be closed in a few weeks.
An official of BCFS, the shelter operator who runs the camp from Tornillo, Texas, said Sunday night that it was expected that the 2,500 children would join the parent or caretaker. sponsor in the United States by January 15th.
"By mid-January, all children should become children. released, "said the official, who was not allowed to speak to the media and who requested anonymity. "We are not extending our contract with the government."
The manager announced that the BCFS contract expired on December 31 and would be extended every day until all the children were released from the shelter. Tornillo. Some children from Tornillo have been there since it opened in June and miners from other shelters have been stranded for about a year.
When the shelter was closed, BCFS dismantled tents, lowered power lines, and took away furniture, including bunk beds, washers and dryers, and medical equipment – which turned the site into a mini-town for the first time. teens. Most of them had gone to the United States of Central America to flee violence and poverty.
The representative of Beto O. Rourke, Texas Democrat, had said earlier Sunday that the general director of the BCFS had told him that the miners were no longer allowed to sprawl Tornillo's facility , located in his district on bare land about 35 km from El Paso.
Even though BCFS was moving the tent city back to Tornillo, the government might try to find another operator to set up a shelter.
Evelyn Stauffer, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services, did not confirm the closure of the city under the tent. In response to questions, she said in a statement that the agency was working for the release of minors "as soon as possible".
"We always emphasize safety and the best interests of every child," the statement said. . "They are vulnerable children in difficult circumstances, and H.H.S.
During a visit to Tornillo on Sunday with dozens of protesters, Mr. O 'Rourke said that the BCFS executive, Kevin Dinnin, had explained that only the lack of "bad luck" was a problem. space on the flights during the holiday season, prevented hundreds of minors from joining their family more quickly.
O'Rourke said that since it opened in June, the tent city had cost taxpayers $ 144 million, a figure the shelter official did not dispute. The price of sheltering a minor in Tornillo is about $ 400 a day, compared with about $ 200 in brick and mortar.
By revealing that the children would be released, Mr. O. Rourke stated that they had been "in a tent in the middle of the desert, in some sort of purgatory or limbo, not knowing when or when if you will see your family again. "
The impending closure of Tornillo follows a recent reversal of Trump's administration policy, designed to speed things up." The Department of Health and Social Services, which oversees the care of children migrants through its refugee reintegration office, announced Tuesday the release of about 15,000 miners stationed for months in a hundred shelters across the country.
that it would require more fingerprints for all members of a household in which a migrant child is to live.Fequently, fingerprints will only be required of the adult who is sponsoring the miner.
The agency said that changing the policy was in the best interests of minors, and a senior agency official said the government had made "bad parents." [19659002] Sponsors of migrant children who border and are stopped by the US authorities must still pass thorough checks of their criminal record. But other people from the same household will not be subject to this additional audit introduced by the administration in June.
As a result, it will take much less time to place children with their families and stays in shelters.
After a lull in President Trump's first year, the number of young migrants, usually teenagers, traveling alone to the US border has skyrocketed in 2018.
Enhanced filtering has delayed their release. , stretching the homes of minors to their maximum capacity. Most of Tornillo's children are waiting for F.B.I's results. checks for all household members of their potential sponsors.
"The children keep coming but no one has been released," said a BCFS official, adding that the projection had created a "terrible capacity bottleneck."
Nearly 3,000 miners were stored in Tornillo, which was originally intended to provide temporary housing. The center opened in June with about 360 adolescents and its population has grown.
Its creation and expansion showed how the Trump government has adopted a militarist approach focused on natural disasters in the care and housing of young migrants. Previous camps had been erected for about 30 days for homeless people following natural disasters, such as hurricanes.
Most of Tornillo's children were transferred elsewhere. BCFS, based in San Antonio, runs six other accommodation centers in Texas and California, with a total of 1,000 beds. He had initially signed a contract with the federal government to manage Tornillo for 30 days; the Department of Health and Social Services began extending this contract on a monthly basis, and in October for an additional three months. Indeed, the information was shared with the Department of Homeland Security, which led to the arrest of some 170 immigrants. its negative impact on children's mental health.
"All those who care about the safety and well being of children are relieved to learn that the appalling Tornillo internment camp would be being gutted" said Dr. Amy J. Cohen, a child psychiatrist and trauma expert who interviewed migrant children in shelters. "We hope this will mean that it will be closed for good."
On Sunday, as dozens of protesters sang Christmas carols in front of the Tornillo camp, a bus with teenagers left. The head of the BCFS said another 100 children would leave the shelter on Monday, Christmas Eve.
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