Current Events > First migrant facility for children opens under Biden

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dozens of migrant teens boarded vans Monday for the trip down a dusty road to a former man camp for oil field workers here, the first migrant child facility opened under the Biden administration.

The emergency facility a vestige of the Trump administration that was open for only a month in summer 2019 is being reactivated to hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17.

Government officials say the camp is needed because facilities for migrant children have had to cut capacity by nearly half because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border has been inching up, with January reporting the highest total more than 5,700 apprehensions for that month in recent years.

But immigration lawyers and advocates question why the Biden administration would choose to reopen a Trump-era facility that was the source of protests and controversy. From the tent city in Tornillo, Tex., to a sprawling for-profit facility in Homestead, Fla., emergency shelters have been criticized by advocates for immigrants, lawyers and human rights activists over their conditions, cost and lack of transparency in their operations.

Its unnecessary, its costly, and it goes absolutely against everything [President] Biden promised he was going to do, said Linda Brandmiller, a San Antonio-based immigration lawyer who represents unaccompanied minors. Its a step backward, is what it is. Its a huge step backward.

During the campaign, Biden pledged to undo former president Donald Trumps hard-line immigration policies. In his first month in office, Biden signed several executive orders reversing many of those policies. Last week, he and House Democrats introduced a plan that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. The administration also reversed some of Trumps expulsion practices by accepting unaccompanied children into the country, a change that also is contributing to an increase of minors in government facilities, officials said.

Mark Weber a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that oversees services for migrant children said the Biden administration is moving away from the law-enforcement focused approach of the Trump administration to one in which child welfare is more centric.
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When I read they were opening again, I cried, said Rosey Abuabara, a San Antonio community activist who was arrested for protesting outside the Carrizo camp in 2019. I consoled myself with the fact that it was considered the Cadillac of [migrant child] centers, but I dont have any hope that Biden is going to make it better.

She said despite what shes heard about the camps amenities, the immense cost and scale of the Office of Refugee Resettlement operations points to a government program that profits from holding migrant children, who are shepherded in unmarked vans to remote areas with what she describes as little oversight.

Brandmiller, the lawyer, said people should take note of how these emergency shelters are often located in far-flung locations away from public view.

This is done deliberately to shelve these children in places that are not only not readily accessible, but not accessible at all to anyone who cares about the quality of life of these kids, and whether or not they comply with the federal law, she said, referring to the Flores Settlement Agreement, which recommends children not stay in unlicensed facilities for longer than 20 days.

HHS said its goal is that children will remain at Carrizo for about 30 days, though they are coming from at least two weeks of quarantine at other Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities in the region. The average stay for children in custody across its facilities is 42 days. In the 2020 fiscal year, migrant children spent an average of 102 days in federal government custody, according to HHS.

So far, no children in HHS care have been hospitalized for covid-19, Weber said.

If we could find another way, thatd be great, Weber said. On the flip side, these kids just come in and theyre turned loose on the street, they end up being homeless kids.

But Brandmiller is worried this is the latest government tactic to deter immigrants from seeking refuge in the United States. She said the Biden administration should not be reviving old systems but looking for new solutions.

If they were actually addressing the issues that are endemic in a system that has been established for many years and is flawed, if they were addressing the inadequacies instead of creating a parallel jail for kids, I would have more hope, she said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/immigrant-children-camp-texas-biden/2021/02/22/05dfd58c-7533-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html


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Let's check in on what Joe Biden's doing

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money when?

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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

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This isn't what I voted for

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Joe Donald Trump Biden

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Biden's America

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Are these teens unaccompanied?

Are these teens with no family in the US to be released to?

Skimmed but didnt see these addresses in the copy + paste

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Posting so I can watch the radical centrists and pro-capitalist liberals justify this.

also anyone who criticizes this is a Trump supporter and/or a delusional Bernie tankie.

/s

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I guess... they show movies now?

Questionmarktarius posted...

I guess... they show movies now?

Do they have swimming pools too?

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Is he supposed to reverse four years of Trumps diarrhea in a day?

Are people arguing against detainment centers in general or just the poorly funded messes run by sociopaths?

What_ posted...

Is he supposed to reverse four years of Trumps diarrhea in a day?

To be fair, a lot of this was started under the admin before trump, who just expanded upon it.

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So what do the opponents of this place believe should be happening when we run into unaccompanied minors crossing the boarders.
And what do these facilities actually do? Do they find families to place the children? Where do they end up going?

I really have no idea what is going on. Does anyone have some non-paywall articles I could read on what does happen, and what should happen?

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Why is it so far from the Canadian border?

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Bandit_Keith posted...

So what do the opponents of this place believe should be happening when we run into unaccompanied minors crossing the boarders.

the tl;dr is "make Jeff Bezos buy them a house!"

why can't they stay at six flags over texas

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Most of these children arrive to the United States planning to reunite with sponsors usually relatives or friends of the family. Office of Refugee Resettlement case managers work with the children to identify and conduct background checks on the sponsors. If cleared, children are released to live with them while they go through the immigration court process.

Yeah Im genuinely confused at what people want.

These are minors who did not travel with family. The US shelters them while they see if they have family in the US, does a background check to verify its safe to place them with the family, then places them there while they go through the immigration process.

I agree they should try to move as quickly as possible and if Biden admin drags their feet through incompetence or malice should be held accountable. Reading though....it seems the complaint is: this physical location has sketchy things happen in the past therefore no immigration holding center should ever exist in this post.

https://twitter.com/aoc/status/1364341956676096001

Guess Congress better act by passing immigration reform

Were_Wyrm posted...

This isn't what I voted for

Enjoy!

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its going to be incredibly tiresome watching the people who went super saiyan every time trump did something irredeemably shitty now require you to fill out a ten page questionnaire for them every time biden does something irredeemably shitty before they can be bothered to care

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ultimate reaver posted...

its going to be incredibly tiresome watching the people who went super saiyan every time trump did something irredeemably shitty now require you to fill out a ten page questionnaire for them every time biden does something irredeemably shitty before they can be bothered to care

Im not being snarky. What do you want done instead for a minor who crosses the border by themself.

ultimate reaver posted...

its going to be incredibly tiresome watching the people who went super saiyan every time trump did something irredeemably shitty now require you to fill out a ten page questionnaire for them every time biden does something irredeemably shitty before they can be bothered to care

Better make sure your punctuation is correct and you cross all the Ts and dot all the Is, otherwise they'll be forced to reject your application.

this is mostly for unaccompanied kids while they look for their parents, right? there should be high scrutiny for the conditions for these places, and this seems better. but absolutely worth continuing to keep an eye on

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onedarksoul posted...

Enjoy!

you do know the alternative was worse, right?

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The alternative was still a cage. This is on congress to fix.

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Next AOC crying photoshoot coming in hot

CruelBuffalo posted...

Im not being snarky. What do you want done instead for a minor who crosses the border by themself.

permanent holding facilities should have been expanded day one. people have been going nuts about this for four years, and for good reason; who wants kids held in the middle of nowhere texas with the only oversight involved being a department of government which is maintaining even now that these tent cities are, and have always been, humane and blameless? even temporary expansions to the permanent facilities would have been better.

but instead it's being handled by the same people with the same intrinsic problems and people are incredibly eager to shrug it off even while people who have had harrowing experiences with them are begging them not to reopen the things.

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ultimate reaver posted...

permanent holding facilities should have been expanded day one. people have been going nuts about this for four years, and for good reason; who wants kids held in the middle of nowhere texas with the only oversight involved being a department of government which is maintaining even now that these tent cities are, and have always been, humane and blameless? even temporary expansions to the permanent facilities would have been better.

but instead it's being handled by the same people with the same intrinsic problems and people are incredibly eager to shrug it off even while people who have had harrowing experiences with them are begging them not to reopen the things.

True in terms of the location being far off. Im not as familiar in terms of who runs them. But to say day 1 structures should be built is a bit...fast

It's okay, Trump isn't president anymore so the media can stop pretending to care.

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Biden is Diet Trump without the treason

AmericaTheBrave posted...

It's okay, Trump isn't president anymore so the media can stop pretending to care.

just like how people stopped caring about COVID once trump was out right? Oh wait.

such a terrible take lmao

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ShibaToken posted...

Biden is Diet Trump without the treason

or without calling Mexicans rapists and criminals.
or without calling Nazis very fine people.
or without trying to ban Muslims.
or without having an actual white supremacist as his top advisor (Stephen Miller)
or without having clownish press secretaries who antagonize the press.
or without telling the word press that he trusts Putin over his own intelligence services.
or without telling Americans that covid will go away by itself

@shibatoken what a terrible take too

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ah. Joe "at least he's better than Trump" Biden.

there are overflow facilities
so there would be less crowded and in a better place

do you wanted crowded detention camps?

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Nice. This is what America needed.

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armandro posted...

there are overflow facilities
so there would be less crowded and in a better place

do you wanted crowded detention camps?

It literally says near the beginning

facilities for migrant children have had to cut capacity by nearly half

yet somehow this is supposed to be as bad as Trump's zero tolerance and child separation policies.
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surprisedpikachu

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CommonGrackle posted...

ah. Joe "at least he's better than Trump" Biden.

That's what they keep saying...i think they are trying to convince themselves

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"Trump's were more crowded!"

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It seems like the fundamental issue is that many people don't understand the difference between "not as bad" and "actually good". Leftists want human beings to objectively be treated well, which generally doesn't involve detention centers.

Liberals seem exasperated by the idea that someone wouldn't be completely and utterly satisfied by "better than Trump". The whole problem is that Trump was really bad so being better than him doesn't mean you are good or humane.

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Ol' Joey really is making American Great Again.

I thought you people would be ecstatic about this. What's the problem? Trump is gone.

I swear, most times these Democrat voters don't know what they want. Who understands them, eh?

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NinjaWarrior455 posted...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Nice

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But Trump

Vicious_Dios posted...

Ol' Joey really is making American Great Again.

I thought you people would be ecstatic about this. What's the problem? Trump is gone.

I swear, most times these Democrat voters don't know what they want. Who understands them, eh?

"Biden is as shitty as my guy" is a massive brain take

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Vicious_Dios posted...

Ol' Joey really is making American Great Again.

I thought you people would be ecstatic about this. What's the problem? Trump is gone.

I swear, most times these Democrat voters don't know what they want. Who understands them, eh?

Trump certainly didn't understand them and lost the election due to it

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