Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
By: EFE
Sunday, October 27
Joe Biden's government to inspect a shelter for migrant minors in Texas
The Government of the President Joe Biden today announced an inspection of the Fort Bliss Migrant Youth Shelter, Texas , where groups advocates for migrants have described appalling health and housing conditions.
“We take very seriously the concerns expressed regarding the quality of management cases at the Fort Bliss Emergency Intake Center, ”Tesia Williams, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of General Inspection, said in a statement.
“ If during this review we obtain information about conduct that appears to be outside the law or the HHS rules and regulations, we will pass those details on to our Investigations Office for appropriate action , ”he added.
Fort Bliss is an Army garrison that occupies about 4, 400 square kilometers and there the Government established an emergency shelter for minor migrants, in mostly from Central America and Mexico, arriving at the southern border unaccompanied by responsible adults.
Minors detained by the Border Patrol must be transferred within 72 hours to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a HHS unit, which is in charge of their custody until relatives of the children or other adults who take care of them are located.
HHS currently has in custody about 08, 000 minors, distributed in different shelters that were overwhelmed since the last Tens of thousands of these children arrived at the border several months.
In early July, two former federal employees reported that thousands of migrant children had been to charge of unskilled personnel for that task at Fort Bliss camp.
In May, when the camp was home to about 5, 000 boys and girls, the Department of Health hired Servpro firm, which specializes in cleaning up after water, fire or storm disasters.
According to the NBC television network, that firm “does not have a history of having handled a contract related to child care” and the staff at Fort Bliss do not speak Spanish.
Immigrant and human rights groups , including Amnesty International, called for then that the Government put an “end to cruelty” in the treatment of children at that military base.
“This terrible situation at Fort Bliss It should never have happened, ”said Denise Bell of Amnesty International USA. “The Government has every opportunity to ensure that it is not repeated by closing these emergency facilities as soon as possible.”
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