Emergency sites for migrant children raising safety concerns

Migrants who were caught trying to sneak into the United States and deported rest under a ramp that leads to the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge point of entry into the U.S., March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico. [Photo: AP/Julio Cortez]

Miguel David Fajardo, 8, a migrant from Honduras, rests at a plaza near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge point of entry into the United States after he, his 13-year-old brother and their mother were caught trying to sneak into the U.S. and deported, March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico. [Photo: AP/Julio Cortez]

Migrants who were caught trying to sneak into the United States and deported, eat near the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge point of entry into the U.S., March 18, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico. [Photo: AP/Julio Cortez]

Migrants, who were caught trying to sneak into the United States, are led by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, second from left, at the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge while being deported to Reynosa, Mexico, March 18, 2021, in Hidalgo, Texas. [Photo: AP/Julio Cortez]

The U.S. government has stopped taking immigrant teenagers to a converted camp for oil field workers in West Texas as it faces questions about the safety of emergency sites it is quickly setting up to hold children crossing the southern border.

The Associated Press has learned that the converted camp has faced multiple issues in the four days since the Biden administration opened it amid a scramble to find space for immigrant children. More than 10% of the camp's population has tested positive for COVID-19 and at least one child had to be hospitalized.

An official working at the Midland, Texas, facility said most of the Red Cross volunteers staffing the site don’t speak Spanish, even though the teenagers they care for are overwhelmingly from Central America. When the facility opened, there weren’t enough new clothes to give to teenagers who had been wearing the same shirts and pants for several days, the official said. And no case managers were on site to begin processing the minors’ release to family elsewhere in the U.S.

Bringing in teenagers while still setting up basic services “was kind of like building a plane as it’s taking off,” said the official, who declined to be named due to government restrictions.

U.S. Health and Human Services notified local officials in Midland on Wednesday that it had no plans to bring more teenagers to the site, according to an email seen by the AP. HHS spokesman Mark Weber said taking more teenagers to Midland was on “pause for now.” There were still 485 youths there as of Wednesday, 53 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19.

The government on Wednesday brought about 200 teenagers to another emergency site at the downtown Dallas convention center, which could expand to up to 3,000 minors. HHS will not open an influx facility for children at Moffett Federal Airfield near San Francisco, Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo said.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been sharply criticized for its response to a surge in crossings of unaccompanied immigrant children. As roughly 4,500 children wait in Border Patrol facilities unequipped for long-term detention, with some sleeping on floors, HHS has rushed to open holding sites across the country and tried to expedite its processes for releasing children in custody. About 9,500 minors are in HHS custody.

In addition, the U.S. has seen a sharp increase in Central American families arriving at the border who are fleeing violence, poverty and the effects of a destructive hurricane. Biden has kept intact an emergency measure enacted by the Trump administration during the pandemic that allows the government to quickly expel them to Mexico, though families with young children are generally allowed to enter through South Texas.