US office for Refugee Resettlement opens new site to house unaccompanied children

Washington, Mar 21 (Bureau) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking urgent steps to make more space to house unaccompanied minors arriving at the US southern border, an HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) spokesperson said “While ORR has worked to build up its licensed bed capacity to almost 13,500 beds, additional capacity is urgently needed to manage both enhanced COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the increasing numbers of UC [unaccompanied children] referrals from DHS [Department of Homeland Security]. To support this effort, HHS will activate the Target Lodge Pecos North property as Influx Care Facility (ICF) for UC,” the ORR spokesperson said in a Saturday statement.

The new facility in Texas is expected to accommodate approximately 500 children with the potential to expand to 2,000. “Additional semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity may be added if necessary, though ORR will always prioritize placing children in hard-sided structures over semi-permanent structures. ORR is committed to holding ICFs to the same or higher standards as state-licensed facilities,” the ORR spokesperson said. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said earlier this week that the administration of US President Joe Biden has failed to provide safe and humane conditions at two recently-opened facilities in Texas that are holding migrant children.

HHS said that as of March 15 there are about 9,200 migrant children under the care of the US government. Data from US Customs and Border Protection shows 9,457 unaccompanied migrant children were apprehended at the southern border in February, which is a substantial increase from the 5,858 unaccompanied migrant children apprehended in January. At least 29,729 migrant children have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border in the period from October to February. Overall, 100,441 migrants were apprehended entering the United States illegally in the month of February.