DALLAS — The U.S. government plans to use the downtown Dallas convention centre to hold up to 3,000 immigrant teenagers as sharply higher numbers of border crossings have severely strained the current capacity to hold youths, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be used for up to 90 days beginning as early as this week, according to written notification sent to members of the Dallas City Council on Monday. Federal agencies will use the facility to house boys ages 15 to 17, according to the memo, which describes the soon-to-open site as a “decompression centre.”
U.S. Health and Human Services is rushing to open facilities across the country to house immigrant children who are otherwise being held by the U.S. Border Patrol, which is generally supposed to detain children for no more than three days. The Border Patrol is holding children longer because there is next to no space in the HHS system, similar to the last major increase in migration two years ago.
A tent facility operated by the Border Patrol in Donna, some 165 miles (265 kilometres) south of Dallas, is holding more than 1,000 children and teenagers, some as young as 4. Lawyers who inspect immigrant detention facilities under a court settlement say they interviewed children who reported being held in packed conditions in the tent, with some sleeping on the floor and others not able to shower for five days.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Saturday directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help manage and care for children crossing the border.
“I am incredibly proud of the agents of the Border Patrol, who have been working around the clock in difficult circumstances to take care of children temporarily in our care,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “Yet, as I have said many times, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child.”
The memo sent to Dallas City Council members says the Federal Emergency Management Agency and HHS will “be responsible for providing shelter management and contracts” for food, security, cleaning, and medical care at the convention centre. Dallas previously offered space to HHS during the 2014 surge of crossings of immigrant children.
Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement that “collective action is necessary and we will do our best to support this humanitarian effort.” He referred questions to HHS, which did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Asked about housing migrant teens at the convention centre, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the administration has been looking for additional facilities for unaccompanied children but that she’d have to look into the specifics of the arrangement in Dallas.
“Certainly we would ensure that we’re meeting the standard that we have set out,” she Psaki said.
HHS also has said it will house immigrant youths in Midland. Teenagers began arriving Sunday at a converted camp for oilfield workers where volunteers from the American Red Cross will care for them.
Neither HHS nor the Red Cross would detail how the volunteers have been trained or whether they have undergone FBI fingerprint checks. The Red Cross said in a statement that it was working with HHS to “orient our volunteers.”
“HHS will utilize all available options to care for the children referred to us safely,” the agency said in a statement. BuzzFeed News first reported the opening of the Midland facility.
The surge at the U.S.-Mexico border has presented a major test for President Joe Biden’s administration, which promised to break from the more restrictive measures against migrants enacted by former President Donald Trump. Biden has left in place some Trump policies, notably the expulsions of immigrant adults and families under a public-health declaration citing the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden declined to reinstate public-health expulsions of children, and his administration has also been unable to expel many families in South Texas due to policy changes in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, across from the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Border agents are apprehending more than 400 children a day on average, far more than the number of children that HHS is processing and releasing to sponsors. The Biden administration has announced several policy changes to try to expedite releases, but experts and immigration lawyers say the government could do more to speed up the process, particularly of releasing children to their parents in the U.S.
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Merchant reported from Houston.
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Reminds me when Obama brought in Ebola victims from Africa to Dallas for treatment. Apparently if you cannot win elections in states like Texas and FLorida, just infect and Cuomo kill off the Conservative voting competition, and overwhelm the system ASAP in those Red targeted states, before you lose the House or Senate. They know their time is going to run out, and are desperate to change the rules and racial voting composition to keep themselves in power ad infinitum. Dallas COnvention Centers are to Sleepy Joe, what Nursing Homes were to Cuomo, Elderly white people do tend to vote Republican. If you are either they have you now in the cross hairs of their illegal importation weapons which will prove way more deadly than any legal firearms.
These RADICALS goal is to flood our country and especially Texas and then try to get “comprehensive” immigration reform. That reform is this radical notion of ANYONE who can breath should be sent a ballot and supposedly vote. It will open up the corruption and illegal harvesting and the multiple voter fraud tactics that was prevalent in previous elections -especially in the presidential elections and the Georgia runoffs. There other goal is to try to continue the corona virus so they can continue their control of people thru the farce of caring about everyone’s health. If they cared about our safety or health you wouldn’t purposely let ‘ILLEGAL” people in without properly vetting them. They can’t. own this and go back to the playbook of blaming trump for their screw ups. They are clueless COWARDS.
Turn the Dallas Convention Center into a big gas chamber and gas ’em so they won’t come back.
I wonder, HAVE THE FOLKS IN Dallas, who PAID for the convention center, even been ASKED if they want it used like this??
Only with a Democrat does the word Convention get turned into detention, How communist of them
Nothing says keeping families together than sending your kids off to another country, unaccompanied. I’d like to see the kids bussed to Biden’s unoccupied mansion in Delaware or D.C. since the streets there are empty. We are simply watching our country being destroyed and taking it laying down.
I have been asking the same question. What kind of parent sends/allows their child to make a dangerous, possibly lethal trip like this?
Criminal parents. Just send them up here to steal from us. Push our kids down. White, going to college? Better have a darn high school grade and SAT. Black, going to college? All you need is a pulse to get in.
In many cases the kids are being moved through by traffickers who will ‘reunite’ with the kids and then put them to work in many vile ways. I feel sorry for these kids but this situation has disaster written all over it.
IMO every one of those families, need to be JAILED FOR child abuse and neglect.
This is the mentality that is invading our used to be civilized culture. Like I have been saying, the democrats are taking us OUT of civilization. We are going BACKWARDs OUT of civilization, and this is what they want.
They are destroying us
1) by invasion with third world country mentality to end our sovereignty
2) by dividing us against each other with THEIR hate and THEIR racism,
3) by spending us into oblivion, and sending OUR tax dollars to our enemies
4) by destroying our free enterprise that built our nation of wealth
5) by raising taxes to force our businesses OUT of business and to force them to move to other countries to survive
6) by closing down the oil pipeline so we will be forced to be dependent on their beloved Arab oil
7) by taking away our 1st, 2nd Amendments, and taking all our freedoms, which is the very first things that communists do when they take down a country
8) and by teaching our kids to hate American culture, to hate our American way, to embrace communism, and to hate God, Who gave us our culture of love.
9) by changing laws, writing laws like H.R. 1, and others, to make their crimes and treason legal, but specifically written to throw the books at us
10) and much, much, much more,…of which we are about to find out. When they get all their new laws passed in their kangaroo courts, and their banana republic congress, you will see just how evil these atheist communist dictators are.
Why exactly does this administration think all these illegals need to be housed in this country while they wait for their paperwork to make it’s way through the federal maze? Once released it’s a pretty good bet that they will never be seen again, except in the welfare line.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas? Homeland Security????? What Homeland Security, with open borders???? Secondly, who is footing the bill for all of these illegal aliens? Oh, it is the taxpayer. Mayorkas, you are head of the The Department of Homeland Traitors!!!!!!
I agree. SINCE it was established, i always felt, DHS was doing MORE HARM than good to the homeland.
These so-called Teenagers they are sending to Dallas.. they have NO idea how many of them are really over 20… the border agent said they have NO IDs so a lot of the illegals who are in their 20s will tell you they are 17… to get treated like juveniles…
The border is going to get worse .. Thanks to Beijing Biden.. I’m so sick of hearing the press secretary and her blantant lies that Trump dismantled the immigration system and he caused this problem.. That is BULLS*T.. Trump stopped many illegals from crossing the border and he worked with Mexico to help… Beijing Biden cancelled out ALL the good that Trump did to stop the flow and now they are flooding in.. It is NOT only Mexico and the other countries south of Mexico.. they are coming in from Haiti, China, Romainia… ETC.. HOW many terrorists are going to end up in there because of Beijing Biden … Trump also fixed it so legal immigrants coming here could not be a burden to the government if they wanted to work to be a citizen.. Beijing Biden cancelled that also.. HOW many of these 3000 coming to Dallas will be infected with Covid…..Will they take priority over Americans and get the vaccine? Americans are going to pay the price for this invasion into our country….
More and more, i’d love to have the power to go backin time, and make a massive DEEP DITCH the full, length of the border.. AND PUT UP A DEATH FIELD ON our side!
I was going to ask the same question. Teenagers, you mean 18 and 19 year old adults ???
Sure, WE THE PEOPLE can’t meet in large groups (especially if it’s to celebrate anything Conservative), but fill the SAME facility with Illegal Aliens, and that’s just fine!
Damn Democrat Hypocrites!
PROOF positive, ILLEGAL INVADERS< have more rights, than WE CITIZENS do.
Just send the border-jumpers back; we can’t afford them.
Democrats can’t seem to use the word “lLLEGAL” Why are we paying for any illegal actions or illegal people. Bide-who has no idea where he’s at or know what’s going on is responsible. He is the puppet of these corrupt cronies and they should be charged as traitors for endangering all of us law abiding citizens. For those who agree to these reckless policies should pay for them. Take a vote and those that agree for these reckless policies should have money taken out of their paychecks-if they work. Those that agree who don’t work should have money taken out, or less free health care dollars or less free food vouchers or less free gov’t benefits to pay for this recklessness. Pay for your stupid decisions.
SINCE they are the party of CROOKS< of course they HATE the term illegal.
When Republicans take over congress next election (provided the democrats don’t totally destroy the democratic process with mandated vote fraud of the dead and illegal via mail and mail and mail . . ) they should legislate all these demo-invaders be relocated to affluent blue cities as close as possible to these aristocratic democrat politicians and their ivory pillared supporters. New York . . California .. . .Delaware . . Massachussetts . .
YOU make two assumptions.
A) THe republicans WILL win.
and B) THEY will grow a spine between now and then.
Not holding my breath. The dems will use the same voter fraud scenario that they did November that made a mockery of our country into the banana republic that they are forcing us into. They got that coup d’etat fraud down to a science. They made a laughing stock out of our country. This was done in Venezuela and other countries that were turned into communism. It’s the plan. And, when they get their new law put into place, we will never see another party win, ever again. They are stacking the courts, they got Chief Justice Roberts eating out of their hands, they got the House, the Senate and the White House, and the republicans are terrified of them. There are only a few who will not bow to their insanity, and they are being ganged up on and bullied by the RINO’s in their party.
A RINO is a democrat who “infiltrated” the republican party and ran as a republican, and won, so they can obstruct any good that the republicans try to pass, and to destroy the republican party, and to keep them out of office, and to cause the discord within so the republican party will self destruct. This is what communists do, they invade and infiltrate
ITS not just got Roberts, the left has in their hands, on the scotus..
No shower in five days? That’s about three times as many showers as they got on their journey to the border, what’s the complaint? I suppose they expected individual motel rooms upon arrival.
Yeah, That worked out “well” for the Houston Astrodome, when we took in 20,000 Katrina Refugees from NOLA! They absolutely destroyed the Dome!
OR many other places. AND WHo’s left to clean up the mess after?? THE LOCAL TAX PAYERS Of course.
Charlie Kirk – Turning Point, do you speak Spanish? Now that they are here, go get to them while they are all in one place!
The next time the GOP controls the House (let’s hope soon), they should propose a bill that forces Blue States that are apparently so fond of illegals to accept them into their towns and cities first. The Red States have been very clear as to how they stand on the issue.
BETTER YET< Propose a law, that ANY STATE that's a Sanctuary city, LOSE REPRESENTATION in congress..
They are bringing more COVID into our country to keep re-infecting us with their COVID and whatever variation theirs has morphed into.
Just saw where Biden is NOT going to the border…. or handle this crisis. Mmmmmm. He’s staying away from that super spreader, but forcing you, me and our entire country to suffer and deal with these democrat future illegal alien voters.
He and the communist dems hunker down inside “Fort Pelosi”, and inside our White House with their walls of razor wire and their troops guarding them, that WE THE PEOPLE pay for, and keeping THEM safe from riots and from the COVID, but forces us to suffer whatever comes, THEN takes our arms so we cannot defend and protect ourselves from these terrorists that he invited here to take what they want from us, and these greedy, power and control hungry dictators won’t defend and protect them from us. The dems are simply putting targets on our backs and making us sitting ducks for the entire world to cross our borders and have their way, while the dems are guarded 24 hours a day, either in the capital or in THEIR gated mansions that we the people paid for. God help us if our citizens do not wake up. The dems are taking us OUT of civilization.
I wonder.. WILL they ever release the #s of AMERICANS who got INFECTED by covid, CAUSE Of these illegals give it to them???
Dallas is the wrong venue. Bus the illegal aliens to Nancy Pelosi (in San Francisco) and Chuck Schumer (in New York) and Slow Joe (at the White House).
Texas is already overrun by illegal aliens and cannot deal with any more of them.
BETTER YET< bus them BACK THE HELL HOME.