More than 5,600 migrant kids are living in Texas shelters

The number of children in Texas shelters remained relatively flat even as the number of migrants arriving at the border has surged.

Federal officials say apprehensions and denials of entry were expected to reach more than 100,000 throughout the southwest border in March, a 12-year high — and more than half of those were families with children. About 10 percent were unaccompanied minors, who are sometimes sent to these shelters temporarily if officials cannot find U.S.-based sponsors to take them in.

There was a large decline in children in Texas shelters in January, when a temporary shelter in Tornillo, near El Paso, closed. The hastily built tent city was designed for 360 children when it opened in June, but by December it held 2,700 children. The Trump administration announced in late December it would relax screening policies that immigrant-rights groups have blasted for slowing placement of migrant kids with relatives and other sponsors.

On Dec. 19, state data showed 8,549 children in shelters for unaccompanied youth across the state. That number dropped to 5,659 as of Feb. 21 — after Tornillo closed. The most recent data shows an increase of just 23 children in the 35 remaining shelters as of March 21.

Shelters are meant to serve as temporary homes for children after they arrive in the U.S., typically without adults, before they can be placed with U.S.-based sponsors — typically family or friends. Despite the recent decrease, the number of children held in shelters across the country has increased dramatically since last summer. It’s unclear how much of the surge can be attributed to a greater number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border and how much is the result of federal policies that have slowed the rate at which children are paired with sponsors.

According to the federal government, some of the children have been released sooner than anticipated because, in late December, the administration ended a portion of its strict screening policies that had slowed the placement of migrant kids with relatives.

On Dec. 19, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the Office of Refugee Resettlement would still fingerprint sponsors and cross-check their information with FBI national criminal history, state repository records and U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrest records. But it said it would stop doing such extensive background checks on other members of the household.

Throughout 2018, detention shelters asked regulators for permission to add more beds as the number of children in their care ballooned. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission decides whether shelters get a capacity variance, which allows them to house more children.

As of March 21, Texas’ 35 state-licensed shelters had permission to accommodate up to 6,466 children, according to the health commission. With 5,682 kids living in them, that means they’re at 88% capacity. One new shelter opened in March — Southwest Key’s Casa Sunzal, which held 100 16- to 17-year-olds on March 21.

Those shelters, licensed as child care providers, have along history of regulatory inspections that have uncovered serious health and safety deficiencies.

A Texas Tribune review of state records found that, over the last three years, inspectors have discovered 468 health and safety violations at the facilities, which can each house anywhere from 20 to more than 1,400 children at a time.

The facilities are required to provide basic care to thechildren of detained migrants, including medical care and at least six hours of daily schooling. Their inspection reports, though often light on details, paint a picture of the abuses that young children may face in a foreign environment where many have language barriers and a history of trauma from the journey to the U.S.

Counts of children on this page are current as of February 2019, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Data from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement is from January 2019.