The News: What is Happening?
The Trump administration is preparing contractors to build and operate large detention camps for unaccompanied migrant children across the country, with space for as many as 3,000 children. Contractors would have to make room for at least 400 within 30 days of receiving a government task order.
The plans are contained in procurement documents issued by the Department of Health and Human Services for what the government formally calls Emergency Intake Facilities. The sites would hold children referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the HHS agency that assumes custody of unaccompanied children after they are transferred from other federal authorities.
The specifications envision large, self-contained detention facilities rather than conventional shelters. Contractors would provide residential quarters, classrooms, dining facilities, medical care, behavioral and mental-health services, quarantine space and indoor and outdoor recreation. Medical personnel would be available around the clock, and children would receive health examinations after entering federal custody.
The Independent reported that draft specifications discussed with contractors also called for rooms holding as many as eight children, an eight-foot perimeter fence and specified bathroom and quarantine capacities. HHS disputed some of those details, calling the reported room and bathroom figures “completely untrue.”
The department has not announced plans to open a 3,000-child detention camp, and no site had been selected when the plans became public. HHS said there were “currently no immediate plans to establish such a facility” and described its discussions with prospective contractors as standard market research conducted in preparation for a possible influx of unaccompanied children.
But the procurement documents contemplate rapid activation. A contractor receiving a task order would have to provide capacity for at least 400 children within 30 days and then expand as directed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The infrastructure must be capable of supporting as many as 3,000 children.
The preparations come as immigration enforcement involving minors has accelerated and as the administration is remaking the federally supported legal-services system for unaccompanied children.
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