United States relocates migrant children in the middle of the night – Quartz

The United States currently hosts almost 13,000 migrant children in detention, the largest population of all time. Today (September 30), the New York Times reports that in recent weeks, an increasing number of them have been displaced, often in the middle of the night, from shelters and shelters. all over the country and transported to a tent city in Tornillo. , Texas, an isolated place near the Mexican border.

"In order to avoid escape attempts, the movements are carried out late at night as children will be less likely to try to escape," writes the Times. "For the same reason, children are generally unprejudiced that they will be moved."

The Tornillo facility has been described as an "ephemeral city" and was created in June 2018 to accommodate 400 children. This number was increased to 1,200 later during the summer and, in mid-September, Texas Monthly announced that the facility would be expanded to accommodate 3,800 children and that it would remain open at least until the end of the year.

Children detained and detained in federal institutions may be given to parents, family members or friends who ask to be their sponsors. Earlier in September, Matthew Albence, Acting Deputy Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Congress that the agency had recently arrested 41 plaintiffs seeking to sponsor children in detention.

In Tornillo, migrant children are separated by sex and sleep in air-conditioned superimposed tents. Unlike shelters and shelters, many of them come, there are no requirements in terms of tuition. US Border Patrol data for the southwest indicate that between October 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018, 45,700 unaccompanied were stopped at the border, an increase of 19% over the same period. period of the previous year.

The majority of migrant children in Tornillo are teenagers who are awaiting placement with their families in the United States. "The move to Texas is supposed to be temporary," writes the Times. "Rather than sending newcomers there, the government is sending children to be released sooner and spend less time there." The Department of Health and Human Services told the Times that the average time that a migrant child stays in custody has nearly doubled in the past year, from 34 to 59 days.