Migrant detention center to open after conditions stir anger

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A year after asylum-seekers and other migrants overwhelmed U.S. immigration authorities at the southern border, the Border Patrol is opening a processing facility in Texas that officials say could help it better care for detainees following outcry last year over young children and adults held in squalid, crowded conditions.

“This facility is much better for us, (and) most importantly, it's going to provide the adequate care and necessities for those that are in our custody,” said Chris Clem, deputy chief patrol agent for the El Paso Sector, which covers southern New Mexico and West Texas.

The agency said it plans to open the 1,040-person facility for families as early as this weekend. It gave journalists a tour Tuesday of the solid wall modular buildings that feature play areas for children, showers, laundry facilities, and other basic necessities not always available in remote Border Patrol holding centers.

Critics say the move doesn't solve a lack of oversight of such facilities and raises confusion about why President Donald Trump's administration is expanding detention space as it pushes policies to reduce asylum claims.

They say little oversight allowed unprepared Border Patrol officials to erect tents around a parking lot in El Paso last spring as it faced a surge of migrants, who were crammed in and had little protection from the desert's swings from hot to cold. The local Border Patrol chief at the time was reassigned to Detroit following widespread criticism of the conditions.

The new facility meant for short-term housing is set to open about six months after the influx of migrants slowed. It comes as the government has virtually prohibitedpeoplefrom seeking asylum by sending them to Guatemala to seek protection there, making people wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings and...