Tornillo tent city

The Tornillo tent city was a temporary immigrant detention facility for children located in Tornillo, Texas and operated by BCFS on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement. The Department termed it an "emergency influx care facility" and named it the Tornillo Influx Facility.[1] When it was built in June 2018, the capacity was 400 minor immigrants with a one month contract.[2] It was later expanded to a capacity of 4,000 minors. As many as 2,800 teenagers were held at the site before its closure was announced in January 2019. This made it one of the largest facilities in ORR's Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. All immigrant children had left the facility by January 11, 2019.[3] Nearly 6,200 minors cycled through the facility within the seven months it operated.[4] The area was previously used for a few months in 2016 to process migrant families and unaccompanied minors.[5]

  1. ^ Levinson, Daniel R (2018-11-27), The Tornillo Influx Care Facility: Concerns About Staff Background Checks and Number of Clinicians on Staff (A-12-19-20000) (PDF), Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General
  2. ^ ""Tent City" for unaccompanied migrant children to remain open longer than planned". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  3. ^ "Official: No migrant children remain at Tornillo tent shelter as it heads toward closure". El Paso Times. January 11, 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  4. ^ Sacchetti, Maria (January 11, 2019). "Trump administration removes all migrant teens from giant Tornillo tent camp". Washington Post.
  5. ^ MIroff, Nick (June 14, 2018). "U.S. to house migrant children in tents outside El Paso as government takes more into custody". Washington Post.