New Carrizo Springs facility for immigrant children to close
The latest shelter meant to house unaccompanied migrant children is now empty after less than a month of use, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Carrizo Springs shelter in south Texas, which was run by BCFS, the same organization responsible for the facility in Tornillo last year, will officially have discharged its last group of migrant children to other state-licensed programs, wrote Evelyn Stauffer, director of communications for the HHS Administration for Children and Families in a statement.
The shelter, which received its first group of children on June 30, was slated to hold a maximum of 1,300 migrant children. It housed 225 when ABC-7 visited in early July and cost a projected $800,000 a day to run.
Stauffer wrote HHS would still retain access to the facility, located two hours south of San Antonio. The agency signed a multi-million dollar five-year lease on the property, which used to be an extended stay hotel used by oil field workers.
“The program must continue to evaluate needs and capacity in order to care for the hundreds of UAC that cross the US border daily. While the UAC Program is designed to expand and contract to meet these needs, temporary facilities like Carrizo Springs have been critical during periods of influx as was done in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018,” Stauffer wrote.
It is unclear if BCFS, the company contracted to manage the shelter, will leave its equipment on site while it remains unused.
ABC-7 visited the facility earlier in the month for a guided tour by HHS.
HHS spokesperson Mark Weber told reporters during that visit they would rather have empty facilities and shelters instead of being unprepared for a surge in border crossings.
Weber explained influx shelters like the one at Carrizo Springs are used when HHS runs out of space for migrant children at permanent facilities. The emptying of Carrizo Springs comes in the middle of a reported slowdown in border crossings influenced by a seasonal summer dip and enhanced enforcement operations by American and Mexican agencies.
