New Immigration Center Suffers Setback

The Thomas Randolph Rey Family Immigration Center is facing some controversy before officially opening it’s doors.

The facility is now called the El Paso Unity Center, and the benefactor, Mamie Salazar-Harper said it was time for a new change.

“We wanted to make this a project El Paso could hang its hat on and El Paso could own,” Salazar-Harper said. “We found out there are people who do not believe in this cause and we were afraid if there were any violence we wanted to keep it secure for the children. So we needed to take the word immigration out of the equation.”

Not only that, but Salazar-Harper and Chief Operating Officer for the Unity Center, Mark Young, said the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services have unreasonable qualifications.

This facility is seen as a long-term child care facility as opposed to the other immigration centers that hold the migrants for a maximum of forty days. Because of this, more requirements must be met.

Some of these requirements include each child must have 60 square feet between their beds, there must be a certain distance between the bedroom and the bathrooms, adequate sunlight and more.

But these requirements have caused a delay to opening the doors for the undocumented children.

“We are going to work through the system to get the permits,” Salazar-Harper said. “We have already worked with the Fire Department and they have already cleared us. The last step is working with Child Protective Services.”

Young will meet with residential child care supervisor Cristina Lowenberg to find a solution. Both Young and Salazar-Harper said they plan on officially opening the El Paso Unity Center by Aug. 4.