Migrant kids have tested positive for COVID-19 inside the majority of Texas’ state-licensed shelters given that the start of March, as the U.S. continues to see an influx of unaccompanied minors getting to its Southern border. Shelters supply interim care to migrant children and teens after they are transferred from federal detention centers and prior to their release to guardians.
Thirty-seven of 44 shelters, currently housing migrant children and teens in various parts of Texas, reported favorable COVID-19 cases between March 5 and 23, according to information collected by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Newsweek acquired the information on Wednesday. It reflects cases identified by shelter centers and foster care providers which are then reported to authorities at the health and human services commission.
The variety of shelters that validated virus cases in migrant children over the past two-and-a-half weeks accounts for 84 percent of all shelters managed by the state. A minimum of 261 kids checked positive since Tuesday, with the majority of cases identified in shelters. Foster care providers reported a handful of confirmed cases too.
A representative from the Texas health commission informed Newsweek it does not keep additional data to track COVID-19 transmission inside federal facilities. The lack of centralized federal treatments to sufficiently recognize and manage COVID-19 cases among migrants apprehended at the border has generated more concerns than responses about the disease’ real incidence.
Countless migrant kids and teenagers are currently being held in U.S. custody, either at short-term detention centers or momentary shelter facilities. Lack of appropriate resources meant authorities were unprepared to properly manage the uptick in arrivals taped over the course of this year. People jailed near the border were positioned in overcrowded detention centers, which, in numerous cases, held unaccompanied minors longer than developed protocol legally allows.
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Authorities within President Joe Biden‘s administration are now working to open additional shelter areas for migrant youth, as security concerns grow along with hazards of COVID-19 transmission. The U.S. Health and Person Solutions Department revealed its plans to open 6 new consumption and increase care centers to hold unaccompanied minors briefly, after officials emphasized an immediate need for broadened capacity throughout the pandemic.
The department’s Workplace of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a branch of the Administration for Children and Families, reopened an overflow shelter center in Texas’ Carrizo Springs last month, which is capable of housing roughly 950 occupants. ORR runs more than 200 short-lived shelter centers for migrant youth and has increased its total bed capacity to 13,500 in an effort to mitigate risks of COVID-19 transmission. Texas Governor Greg Abbott referenced an outbreak at the Carrizo Springs facility in a statement issued recently, blaming the Biden administration for hazardous conditions that unaccompanied minors deal with in federally run facilities.
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