{"id":653925,"date":"2018-12-10T04:16:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T11:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=653925"},"modified":"2018-12-10T13:45:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T20:45:38","slug":"with-contract-set-to-expire-no-word-on-whats-next-for-tornillo-immigration-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/12\/with-contract-set-to-expire-no-word-on-whats-next-for-tornillo-immigration-center\/","title":{"rendered":"With contract set to expire, no word on what&#8217;s next for Tornillo immigration center"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_653930\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-653930\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tornillo_aerial_Sept_20_1_IPA_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Tornillo\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tornillo_aerial_Sept_20_1_IPA_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tornillo_aerial_Sept_20_1_IPA_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tornillo_aerial_Sept_20_1_IPA_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Tornillo_aerial_Sept_20_1_IPA_TT.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ivan Pierre Aguirre \/ for the Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of the tent city at the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in Tornillo on Sept. 12.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>With just weeks before a federal contract to operate a West Texas detention center for undocumented immigrant minors is set to expire, there is still no word whether the Trump administration plans to keep the site open into 2019.<\/p>\n<p>But the shelter operators maintain that another contract extension would be just one more short-term solution to a larger problem that needs a permanent fix.<\/p>\n<p>The contract between the federal Health and Human Services\u2019 Offices of Refugee Resettlement and San Antonio nonprofit BCFS to operate the controversial detention camp at Tornillo is due to expire at the end of this month after being extended several times since the original 30-day contract in June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ball is in their court,\u201d BCFS spokeswoman Evy Ramos said last week. \u201cWe have said to them just recently this week, we can\u2019t just keep extending this, this is not a permanent solution. Something else has to be figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/07\/future-tornillo-immigration-center-unclear-after-contract-expires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The facility \u2014 a collection of dozens of military-grade tents on the grounds of a federal port of entry surrounded by acres of farmland \u2014 has swelled from a few hundred immigrants in June to about 2,300. Its capacity was expanded to about 3,800 after the administration realized the flow of unauthorized minors seeking asylum in the United States did not dwindle despite efforts to deter asylum seekers by turning them away at the international ports of entry and urging the Mexican government to block Central Americans from traveling through that country.<\/p>\n<p>If the government didn&#8217;t extend the contract for Tornillo, it would have to build or find another facility that\u2019s designed for long-term detention, Ramos said. But that decision is ultimately up to ORR officials. She said the company, which as of Nov. 30 had received just over $144 million from the government to run the facility, doesn&#8217;t know what the government plans to do. But it &#8220;will not just abandon the children in Tornillo,&#8221; Ramos said.<\/p>\n<p>HHS spokesman Mark Weber said late Wednesday that children in the agency\u2019s care would continue to be \u201cprovided critical services in a safe and compassionate matter,\u201d no matter where they are placed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust like we have in the past, we will make a public announcement when\/if operation at Tornillo are extended,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ramos isn\u2019t the first BCFS employee to question the Trump administration\u2019s handling of undocumented immigrant children. In June, the incident commander at the facility said the administration&#8217;s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy \u2014 which resulted in thousands of immigrant children being separated from their parents \u2014 was a mistake that prompted building the makeshift shelter in Tornillo. The president ended the policy about two months after it was initiated after a public outcry over the family separations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an incredibly dumb, stupid decision,\u201d the incident commander said at the time, adding that he hoped to never again conduct a similar operation. He added that he thought the facility wouldn\u2019t be needed past the middle of July, when the first contract was set to expire.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>That was almost six months ago.<\/p>\n<p>When the facility first opened, a small number of children at the facility had been separated from their parents under zero tolerance. Ramos said Wednesday that all the children currently in the facility are minors who arrived to the country without a parent or guardian, and the large majority are from Central America.<\/p>\n<p>Tornillo holds youths age 17 or younger. Before they can be released to a U.S. sponsor, those adults need to be vetted. Ramos said that process has slowed considerably since the summer, when minors were released after only a few weeks in the facility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI support the fact that they need to do fingerprinting and background checks on every adult in the [sponsor\u2019s] home in order to ensure the safety of the children,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the speed at which they\u2019re doing it, it\u2019s just taking too long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a report from the Office of the Inspector General confirmed media reports that employees at the facility did not undergo FBI background checks. The issue was first <a href=\"https:\/\/news.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/gy7534\/exclusive-workers-in-tent-city-for-migrant-children-are-not-getting-fbi-fingerprint-background-checks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> by VICE News last month.<\/p>\n<p>Ramos said that at BCFS&#8217;s long-term care facilities that are licensed by the state, access to the FBI database is allowed because the state acts as BCFS&#8217;s government sponsor. But because Tornillo is a federal project on federal land, that access hasn&#8217;t been granted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re wondering why ORR couldn\u2019t have been our sponsoring agency in order to be able to process those FBI fingerprint background checks,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to, or wanted to go around it. We could not do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the OIG report was released, U.S. Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif. and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., called for HHS and the Department of Homeland Security to immediately close the facility.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is clear the administration&#8217;s actions are putting thousands of children in danger,&#8221; they wrote to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.<\/p>\n<p>Weber said the Office of Refugee Resettlement is working with the FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety &#8220;to conduct FBI fingerprint background checks as quickly as possible for current and future employees at Tornillo.\u201d He added that BCFS has conducted other pre-employment background checks, including standard state felony and misdemeanor checks and multi-state sex offender registry checks.<script src=\"https:\/\/dot.texastribune.org\/static\/dist\/dot.min.55eef7d282ec435600d1.js\" integrity=\"sha384-kWHbWWrJHsBy04\/FLYpSF8whX7iznTaWu7KCwxjA7qmPD3La29VFha61MJDfKQ+e\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/07\/future-tornillo-immigration-center-unclear-after-contract-expires\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After receiving several contract extensions, the tent city&#8217;s operators say they want the government to find a long-term solution. But they also don&#8217;t want to abandon the children held there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-653925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653931,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653925\/revisions\/653931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}