Newly released video footage shows the inside of a federal immigration shelter in Texas that houses unaccompanied children who reach the United States.
The footage, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), shows the Tornillo shelter.
The footage shows children playing soccer and eating, and shows the living facilities, which are sturdy tents that resemble those used by the military.
Inside the tents are rows of bunk beds and a few tables at which the children can play board games and do crafts.
Tornillo Expands as Stricter Checks Implemented
The shelter has had to expand recently, as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children reached the United States this year. The shelter houses 1,500 children as of Oct. 12, HHS said in a press release (pdf). Most of those come from Guatemala. Homes have been identified for 826 of the children and background checks are underway.Officials told NBC that new standards require everyone in the household where an unaccompanied child is set to be placed to submit fingerprints that will be run against FBI criminal databases.
Children stay in Tornillo on average for 25 days, versus an average of 59 days across all shelters; most of them are released to family members to await immigration hearings. Some have criticized President Donald Trump’s administration holding unaccompanied children for weeks, but officials have focused on releasing children only after verifying the identity of family members to prevent human smuggling.
About 80 percent of the children at the Tornillo shelter are male. All the children are ages 13 to 17.
The department provides children with an individual bed, counseling, case management, medical care, three meals a day and snacks, recreation including soccer, religious services, and other services, according to HHS. The supervision ratio is no more than one adult for every eight children, with additional security and other workers often hired as contractors.
The Tornillo shelter has 3,800 beds in total, with 1,400 currently being on reserve status. That’s an expansion to nearly 10 times its original size since when it opened in June, officials told Reuters.
The Law
Unaccompanied children who are apprehended while or after crossing into the United States and do not have a parent or legal guardian in the United States must receive care.The HHS does not play a role in the apprehension of the children. Other agencies transfer the children to the shelters.
In total, HHS operates just over 100 shelters in 17 states.
