Immigrant children displaced at the tent would receive little education or access to a lawyer

The news that the Trump administration had separated the immigrant children from their families at the border and held them in shelters drew the attention of the nation in early summer, when the first day of the war. extent of the problem appeared fully. However, the problem did not stop when media coverage evolved, and it appears that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has transferred immigrant children to a tent city in South Texas.

The children who now occupy the tent city of Tornillo, Texas – which is not the only one of its kind – are not just the ones the Trump administration separated from their parents at the border, according to the same New York Times. The population of immigrant children whose custody HHS has grown from 2400 to 12 800 since the summer of 2017, the Time reported, and HHS facilities are used to the limit – which is why the children were transferred to a new tent city. That of Tornillo, the Time written, can hold up to 3,800 children in tents separated by sex, which each sleep 20 children.

The administration moved the children in the middle of the night, which would be a measure intended to prevent them from trying to escape.

In their new temporary home in Tornillo, children receive regular schooling and have access to the legal aid they received in their previous foster homes. Time reported. HHS means that this is only a temporary situation, as a spokesman explained at Time.

"It is common to use influx shelters as in the past in military bases, and the intention is to use these temporary facilities as long as necessary," said HHS spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer. She then called the thousands of children in custody "a symptom of the larger problem, namely a broken immigration system".

"That is why H.H.S. joins the President in calling on Congress to reform this failed system," she told the Time.

While the Tornillo Tent City has recently experienced an influx of new residents, this is not new. The first and others began in early June, according to USA todayand immigrant advocates quickly criticized the policy of housing children in situations like this.

"A tent city is not a place where kids can be," said Texas State Representative, César Blanco. "It goes against the values ​​not only of border communities, but of America in general."

The city of Tornillo, according to Reuters, has a largely Hispanic population and the vast majority of residents do not support the housing of immigrant children in facilities like this one.

"I hope that Tornillo, as a city, is not considered the place where there are tents for children all over the country," said Rosy Vega-Barrio, Tornillo's independent school district in June with Reuters.

The Tornillo plant, almost directly adjacent to the southern border, currently houses a population of mostly teenagers. The conditions in the tent city are "good", according to a Texas Republican representative, Will Hurd, who visited in June Texas monthly about it – but he always told the publication that he saw a major problem with it.

"If, to deal with our broken immigration system, we use children as a deterrent, then we have a problem," Hurd said. Texas monthly – referring to the separation policy of the administration.