San Diego Convention Center to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant kids
The San Diego Convention Center will soon become a temporary housing facility for unaccompanied migrant children.
The San Diego Convention Center will soon become a temporary housing facility for unaccompanied migrant children.
The city and county made the announcement on Monday, but a date for the first arrivals is still being finalized.
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Children will be provided food, medical care and a place to sleep and bathe.
Funding will come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Refugee Resettlement Program.
The HHS has already opened a similar site at the convention center in Dallas to shelter about 1,500 children.
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As of Monday, 81 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were supporting HHS in sheltering the unaccompanied children, according to the agency. FEMA personnel are present in Dallas, Midland, Texas; Donna, Texas; San Diego and Washington, DC.
Federal law requires migrant children to be turned over to HHS, which is charged with their care, within 72 hours. But amid constraints resulting from the pandemic and the accelerated pace of arrivals, the administration has had a difficult time catching up to the arrival of minors, resulting in thousands held up in border facilities.
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Priscilla Alvarez, CNNWire contributed to this report.
