The facilities in Carrizo Springs, Texas, are an example of the types of shelters that management has struggled to find to accommodate children. These facilities, managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, are equipped to provide medical services, dormitories and other types of support.
The Biden government has not yet allowed news cameras to enter US Customs and Border Protection facilities, where children have been detained, on average, for more than the 72 hours allowed by law, although CBP has released government images of one of these facilities earlier this week.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the government would also provide media access to Border Patrol facilities.
“This is just the first step in the process of providing greater access to the media,” CNN’s Psaki told Jeff Zeleny at a press conference at the White House.
“We all agree that the Border Patrol facilities are not places where children should be. They are, children should move more quickly through these facilities, that is the central focus of our policy now,” said Psaki.
The Carrizo Springs facility was initially opened under the Trump administration in 2019 to house an increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border. It is intended to house minors, unlike the facilities of the Border Patrol.
The facility is available for children aged 13 to 17, according to HHS. Since the opening, 1,026 children have been placed in the shelter and 216 children have been discharged, the department says. There are currently 766 minors at the site. The capacity is 952.
According to a network reporter accompanying the delegation, 108 of the children at this establishment tested positive for Covid-19 and did so when they arrived. They are kept in dorms with negative air pressure and released after having two negative Covid tests.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently led a bipartisan delegation of senators in El Paso, Texas, to visit the facility and reporters were not allowed to accompany them. The Department of Homeland Security said the trip was closed to journalists because of Covid-19’s privacy and precautions.
The Biden government is struggling to accommodate an increase in the number of unaccompanied minors arriving at the US-Mexico border, which has overburdened and depleted government resources.
As of Tuesday, more than 880 unaccompanied migrant children had been in the custody of the Border Patrol for more than 10 days, according to documents analyzed by CNN.
Federal law requires unaccompanied children to be delivered within 72 hours to HHS, which oversees a network of shelters designed to house minors, but amid restrictions related to the pandemic, children remain in custody for more than the 72-hour limit. .
Biden government officials traveled to Mexico on Monday to discuss migration management with government officials.
Roberta Jacobson, coordinator of the Biden government for the southern border, Juan Gonzalez, senior director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, and State Department’s Northern Triangle special envoy, Ricardo Zúñiga, are on the trip. Gonzalez and Zúñiga are also traveling to Guatemala to hold meetings after the trip to Mexico.
This story has been updated with details of the visit.