The federal government confirmed Monday that it is planning to shut down three temporary shelters it has set up for unaccompanied immigrant children at U.S. military bases in favor of less costly locations elsewhere.
The shelter at Fort Sill in Oklahoma will close by this Friday, while the facilities at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas and Naval Base Ventura County in California will shut their doors within two months, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families.
“We are able to take this step because we have proactively expanded capacity to care for children in standard shelters, which are significantly less costly facilities,” said Kenneth Wolfe, deputy director of the Office of Public Affairs for the federal agency. “At the same time, we have seen a decrease in the number of children crossing the southwest border.”
Wolfe did not identify the new shelters. But an Atlanta area Baptist ministry recently confirmed that the federal government has asked whether it could help care for some of the children. Georgia Baptist Children's Homes and Family Ministries said the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement made contact in March. No word yet on if and when any of the children will be going to the Georgia ministry.
Tens of thousands of Central American children have been streaming across the southwest border, fleeing poverty and gang violence in their native countries. After apprehending them, federal authorities are transferring them to the care of adult sponsors in Georgia and other states, where they go through deportation proceedings in immigration courts.
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