US: 40% fewer migrant kids held at largest emergency shelter

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The number of migrant children housed at the Biden administration's largest emergency shelter for those who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone has dropped by more than 40% since mid-June, a top U.S. official said Monday, touting progress at the facility that has been criticized by child welfare advocates.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters that 790 boys are now housed at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, and the last girl left Monday. He did not say whether all the girls were reunited with relatives in the U.S., were sent to licensed facilities or if some were transferred to another unlicensed, emergency shelter that the government has opened as record numbers of unaccompanied children cross the border.

In mid-June, the administration reported about 2,000 boys and girls were at the Fort Bliss facility amid child welfare advocates’ concerns about inadequate conditions at the large-scale facility.

Becerra said his agency, which is responsible for caring for migrant children, is now evaluating whether some of the emergency shelters can be closed. But he declined to say whether Fort Bliss would be among them.

“Because we’ve been successful in managing the flow, we are prepared to begin the demobilization of several of our emergency intake sites,” Becerra said.

He made his second visit to Fort Bliss since it opened in March and said more services and staffing have been added, including case managers who have helped get children released to relatives in the U.S. or placed in licensed facilities more quickly.

In transcripts of interviews done by attorneys and filed in federal court in Los Angeles last week, migrant children described their desperation to get out of Fort Bliss and the other large shelters set up by the...