The San Diego Convention Center will be used as a temporary migrant shelter for unaccompanied children seeking asylum, reports CBS News 8.
The City and County of San Diego made the announcement Monday.
“When HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra requested our help to house some of the unaccompanied minors at the border, we knew it was the right thing to do,” wrote City of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ Chair Nathan Fletcher. “Over the weekend, we agreed to open our convention center to the federal government for use as a temporary shelter.
“The city and county will support this federally funded effort by providing vital services to these vulnerable children who came to our country seeking safety. We are working closely with our federal partners to finalize the details for preparing to receive these young people and provide them with care, compassion and a safe space to transition while they are reunited with families or sponsors,” the statement continued.
The site will be used for approximately three months and children will be provided with food, medical care, a place to sleep, and a place to shower. The Biden administration has been scrambling to deal with a surge of border crossings over the last two months and criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about conditions at several border patrol facilities.
A record number of 5,000 unaccompanied children are in U.S. Border Patrol custody, and an additional 10,500 are in the care of U.S. Health and Human Services.
A series of pictures emerged Monday showing migrant children being held in crowded rooms with mattresses on the floor surrounded with clear plastic at a detention facility in Texas.
“It’s terrible under a regular circumstance, but when you add a pandemic on top of that, those pictures can be disturbing,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said Monday evening in an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on “ABC News Prime.”
“Are we having a humanitarian crisis trying to take care of these kids? The answer is yes,” Cuellar said. “This administration has all the good intentions. They want to treat the kids in a humane way … but their good intentions are being overwhelmed by numbers.”
The White House pushed back on the criticism.
“These photos show what we’ve been long saying, which is that these border patrol facilities are not places made for children,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a news conference Monday. “They are not places that we want children to be staying for an extended period of time.”
“Our focus now is on solutions,” she said.
Source: Newmax
