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U.S. NEWS Thursday 27 december 2018

AP Exclusive: Migrant teen tent city staying open into 2019

By GARANCE BURKE and FBI fingerprint checks for
ANITA SNOW the 2,100 staff working
Associated Press there and allowed the pri-
The Trump administration vate contractor running
said Wednesday it will keep the facility to have just one
open through early 2019 a mental health clinician for
tent city in Texas that now every 100 children. In No-
holds more than 2,000 mi- vember, Health and Hu-
grant teenagers, and also man Services officials said
will increase the number of they hoped the fingerprints
beds at another temporary would be completed in a
detention center for chil- month but they haven’t
dren in Florida. The Tornillo given an update.
facility opened in June in Lawmakers called for strict-
an isolated corner of the er background checks,
Texas desert with capac- more mental health sup-
ity for up to 360 children. port and a public hearing
It eventually grew into a to further investigate prob- In this Dec. 13, 2018 file photo migrant teens walk in a line through the Tornillo detention camp in
Tornillo, Texas.
highly guarded detention lems at Tornillo raised by a Associated Press
camp where, on Christmas, federal watchdog report
some 2,300 largely Central and an Associated Press
American boys and girls investigation. The federal
between the ages of 13 program originally intend-
and 17 slept in more than ed to offer a safe haven to
150 canvas tents. vulnerable children fleeing
U.S. Department of Health danger across the globe
and Human Services has expanded consider-
spokesman Mark Weber ably over the last two years.
said Tornillo, which originally Three months after Presi-
was slated to close Dec. 31, dent Donald Trump took
has stopped receiving new office there were 2,720 mi-
referrals of migrant youth. grant youth in government
Tornillo will now shut down care. Today, the system has
after the new year, Weber 16,000 beds available for
said, but he did not give migrant children. Confiden-
an exact date or more pre- tial government data ob-
cise time frame for when it tained and cross-checked
might close for good. The by AP has shown that as
agency is working with its the year draws to a close,
network of shelters includ- about 9,800 detained mi-
ing Tornillo to release the grant children are in facili-
children “to suitable spon- ties holding 100-plus total
sors as safely and quickly kids, including Tornillo and
as possible,” he said. Homestead. The American
The government also plans Academy of Pediatrics and
to house more teens at many experts warn against
another temporary shelter institutionalizing children
in Homestead, Florida, ex- in large groups, saying the
panding the total number experience of treating the
of beds from 1,350 to 2,350, young migrants like cogs in
he added. Tornillo came a big machine can have
under fire last month after severe psychological con-
revelations that the Trump sequences and cause life-
administration had waived long trauma. q