By GARANCE BURKE, JULIET LINDERMAN AND MARTHA MENDOZA | Associated Press | Published: May 11, 2021 The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that The Associated Press has learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside. Confidential data obtained by the AP shows the number of migrant children in government custody more than doubled in the past two months, and this week the federal government was housing around 21,000 kids, from toddlers to teens. A facility at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday. Attorneys, advocates and mental health experts say that while some shelters are safe and provide adequate care, others are endangering children s health and safety.
Migrant children held in mass shelters, including more than 4,500 at Fort Bliss
stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By GARANCE BURKE, JULIET LINDERMAN and MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press
The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that The Associated Press has learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside.
Confidential data obtained by the AP shows the number of migrant children in government custody more than doubled in the past two months, and this week the federal government was housing around 21,000 kids, from toddlers to teens. A facility at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday. Attorneys, advocates and mental health experts say that while some shelters are safe and provide adequate care, others are endangering children s health and safety.
A few of the current practices are the same as those that President Joe Biden and others criticized under the Trump administration, including not vetting some caregivers with full FBI fingerprint background checks. At the same time, court records show the Biden administration is working to settle several multimillion-dollar lawsuits that claim migrant children were abused in shelters under President Donald Trump.
Part of the government’s plan to manage thousands of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border involves about a dozen unlicensed emergency facilities inside military installations, stadiums and convention centers that skirt state regulations and don’t require traditional legal oversight.
U.S. holding migrant children with little oversight in some 200 shelters
A facility at Fort Bliss, an Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday.
Â
Â
Young migrants wait to be tested for COVID-19 on March 30 at a Department of Homeland Security holding facility in Donna, Texas, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley. [ DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS | AP ]
Updated May 11
The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside, the Associated Press has learned.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.