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The San Diego Convention Center, which initially received teenage girls when it opened as a temporary facility for unaccompanied migrant children last month, is now also taking in younger boys and girls as well.
The younger children are ages 5 to 12, and some, but not all, are traveling with older teenage sisters. Siblings are being kept together at the downtown San Diego building, according to Carol Fiertz, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, rather than separated by age and gender.
“Needs change,” Fiertz said on Monday afternoon.
The federal government asked San Diego officials for temporary use of the facility in March as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to expand the department’s capacity to hold migrant children in its custody after crossing the border. Children are supposed to be transferred to Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement within 72 hours, but many were staying in Border Patrol custody muc