© Reuters / Adrees LatifChild migrants take shelter from the rain in the back of a US Border Patrol vehicle on Sunday after crossing the border into Texas.
The U.S. government plans to use the downtown Dallas convention center to hold up to 3,000 immigrant teenagers as
sharply higher numbers of border crossings have severely strained the current capacity to hold youths, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be used for up to 90 days beginning as early as this week, according to written notification sent to members of the Dallas City Council on Monday. Federal agencies will use the facility to house boys ages 15 to 17, according to the memo, which describes the soon-to-open site as
a "decompression center."U.S. Health and Human Services is rushing to open facilities across the country to house immigrant children who are otherwise being held by the U.S. Border Patrol, which is generally
supposed to detain children for no more than three days. The Border Patrol is holding children longer because there is next to no space in the HHS system, similar to the last major increase in migration two years ago.
A tent facility operated by the Border Patrol in Donna, some 165 miles (265 kilometers) south of Dallas, is holding more than 1,000 children and teenagers, some as young as 4. Lawyers who inspect immigrant detention facilities under a court settlement say they interviewed children who reported being held in packed conditions in the tent, with some sleeping on the floor and others not able to shower for five days.
Comment: It's not just unaccompanied kids, at least
according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans. According to him, some foreign nationals on the "terror watchlist" having been attempting to cross the border.
Four foreign nationals, whose names match those on the terror watch list, have been stopped trying to enter the U.S. via the southern border since October, a congressional aide familiar with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) information told Fox News.
That information shows that three migrants from Yemen and one from Serbia were picked up at the southern border by U.S. Border Patrol since the beginning of the fiscal year in October.
...
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Monday, during a visit to the border, that Border Patrol agents had been warning lawmakers about foreign nationals on the terror watch list getting in.
...
McCarthy said migrants were coming from Yemen, China, Sri Lanka and Iran. Border Patrol agents arrested 11 Iranian citizens in Arizona last month.
Rep. John Katko, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, recounted a similar conversation with a Border Patrol official.
"And he said some of them are on the list. And I said list? And he said, 'yeah, the terror watch list.' And I was stunned and I've never heard that before," he said on "America's Newsroom."
Terrorists crossing the border has been a Republican talking point for some years now, but much nothing has come of it aside from anecdotes like those above.
With the mounting crisis of numbers on the border, the Biden administration has
attempted to ban Border Patrol agents from speaking with the media, with a verbal, unofficial 'gag order':
Those who are allowed to speak can only use "approved messaging," the Washington Examiner reported, while NBC said that even local reporters in border areas are referred to CBP's Washington office for answers to their questions.
Comment: See also: Antifa wants to lead African-Americans to their slaughter to spark a race war