Feds Say Unaccompanied Alien Teens Headed for Goodfellow Will Stay in Tornillo for Now

TORNILLO, TX -- While Goodfellow Air Force Base remains ready to carve out 75 acres to house thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), the federal government said Friday they won’t be sent here for at least another month.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday it will continue operations at the temporary shelter in Tornillo for another 30 days from August 13, 2018 to September 13, 2018.

The Tornillo facility was erected in June and was originally scheduled to close in July, but federal officials extended the contract with its service provider until Aug. 13. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families said the facility will now be up and running until Sept. 13.

The detention center houses unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally.

"HHS will continue to assess the need for this temporary shelter at Tornillo Land Port of Entry, Tornillo, Texas, based on projected need for beds and current capacity of the program," the spokesperson said in a news release. "HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement is continuously monitoring bed capacity available to provide shelter for minors who arrive at the U.S. border unaccompanied and are referred to HHS for care by immigration officials, as well as the information received from interagency partners, to inform any future decisions or actions."

"An existing grant is being used to continue operations at Tornillo LPOE. No new contracts for operations at Tornillo were awarded," an HHS spokeswoman said.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is "continuously monitoring bed capacity available to provide shelter for minors who arrive at the U.S. border unaccompanied and are referred to HHS for care by immigration officials," a news release states.

Ten members of the bi-partisan Mexican American Legislative Caucus toured the temporary shelter Friday to get a first-hand look at how the teenagers are being cared for.

The announcement came the same day Democratic state Reps. César Blancoof El Paso, Mary González of Clint, Eddie Rodriguez of Austin, Ina Minjarezof San Antonio, Diego Bernalof San Antonio and Gina Hinojosa of Austin, all members of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, toured the facility. They said there are more than 170 immigrant minors in Tornillo, but none are children who were separated from their parents or guardians under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. The facility previously housed a small number of those children, but they have all been released, Minjarez said

As we reported Wednesday, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz toured Goodfellow AFB and said, “I don’t know the exact status. I spent a considerable amount of time with the leadership at Goodfellow and they are preparing to be able to stand up a detention facility if the decision is made to house unaccompanied children there.”  

“My understanding is that decision has not been made so the leadership at Goodfellow doesn’t know if that’s going to happen or not. They have the land set aside of where the detention facilities would be stood up.”