Report: Number of detained migrant children is highest ever recorded

The overall number of detained migrant children is at the highest level ever recorded.

The New York Times is reporting that population levels at federally contracted shelters is at 12,800 this month.

That’s more than five times higher since May 2017, when it was 2,400.

Those numbers are from data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services, which were then given to The New York Times.

The data suggest that the huge increases are due to the reduction in the number of children who are being released to live with families and other sponsors and that most of them are teens from Central America who crossed the border alone.

Read the full report by The New York Times

This information comes on the heels of reports by ABC-7 that the facility at the Tornillo port of entry is being expanded.

It will be able to sleep 3,800 children, up from 400.

It currently houses 300 unaccompanied children.

ABC-7 got a look at the facility in June.