About 450 unaccompanied migrant girls, between the ages of 13 and 17, were suddenly displaced from a U.S. residence in Houston on Saturday – less than three weeks after it opened.
According to authorities, authorities are mostly tight-lipped about the closure, but an advocate for immigrants claims it was due to some sort of incident there Friday night.
Ambulances and law enforcement vehicles were seen outside the facility near Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday night, the lawyer told The Associated Press. He mentions the information he said about an employee of the group he leads.
On Saturday morning, buses arrived to transport the girls, according to other reports.
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“There seems to be a lot of confusion about what is happening,” Cesar Espinosa, director of advisory group FIEL Houston, told the AP, passing on the information about the employee on Friday night. “The people who were there seemed to be in a sad attitude, like with their heads down and it seemed as if they were wiping away the tears.”
“There seems to be a lot of confusion about what’s happening.”
The Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that the closure followed reports of crowds at the facility – and that a senior U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) staff member died there Friday night in an unrelated incident keep up with the transfer of the girls.
The girls in the Houston facility have been there since April 1st. According to the AP, the site is called an emergency site for unaccompanied children and is operated by the National Association of Christian Churches (NACC).
Print conditions
Espinosa told the AP he toured the facility and found that the girls were living in stressful conditions despite the coronavirus pandemic.
“There was actually no room for social distance. … They were only allowed to get out of bed to use the toilet as well as to shower,” he said. “Everything that was brought in was temporary. The showers were temporary, they brought in temporary toilets, and so this space was not equipped to accommodate anyone, even less children.”
“There was really no room for social distance. … They were only allowed to get out of bed to use the toilet as well as to shower.”
But Pastor Jose Ortega, president of the NACC, disputes Espinosa’s allegations, claiming that the girls are being removed due to disagreements over contractors and that the youth are being well cared for.
“The girls were excited. The girls were having fun. The girls were dumped, babysitting,” the pastor told Houston’s KHOU TV.
The pastor told Houston’s KPRC-TV that he only knew about the closing plans on Saturday morning.
“We found out when we saw the buses arriving this morning,” Ortega was quoted as saying by KPRC.
The AP announced the news of the closure of the Houston facility.
Migrants are crammed into a facility in Donna, Texas.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said the Biden government told him Saturday that the facility would be closed because it was no longer needed, KHOU reported.
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The disclosure of the HHS came less than two weeks after Republican Gov. Texas Abbott called on Biden’s government to close a San Antonio facility over allegations that children are being sexually abused there and not do not eat enough. According to the AP, there are more than 1,600 youth in San Antonio.
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“The Biden government is now leading the way in child abuse,” Abbott told reporters earlier this month when he notified Texas officials of the allegations of federal sanctions.
“The Biden government is now presiding over child abuse.”
However, there was no suggestion in Saturday’s reports that any sexual abuse took place in Houston.
In March, the U.S. government stopped accepting migrating teens at a facility in Midland, Texas, over security issues there and elsewhere, the AP reported.
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HHS said in a statement that the premises were intended as temporary accommodation for the girls.
According to HHS, about 130 of the girls will be placed with sponsors, such as parents or family members, and HHS ‘Refugee Resettlement Office (ORR) will find sponsors for the rest of the girls.
Attempts by the AP to reach the Houston police and the National Association of Churches regarding the closure of Houston were not immediately successful.
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HHS rushed to find housing for migrant children in the U.S.-Mexico border region amid the migratory boom that came at the start of the Biden government.
Neither President Biden – nor Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked last month with managing the Biden government’s response to the migrant crisis – has been touring the border region since taking office in January.
Harris’ recent travels have included stops at a catering business in Oakland, California; a bakery in Chicago, and a Boys & Girls Club in Connecticut.
Associated Press contributed to this story.