Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would no longer be housing unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors at Fort Bliss in Texas.
The HHS initially opened a tent facility at the base in 2021. But last year, the department announced it would begin phasing out its 14 emergency intake sites.
The 13- to 17-year-old minors who currently occupy the Fort Bliss facility are being transported to “Influx Care Facilities” in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The facility is a repurposed boarding school with 800 beds, two dozen buildings, and a sports field, as well as an athletic center. It will be the government’s largest active housing facility for migrant boys and girls who entered the United States without their parents or legal guardians.
Activists had called for the closure of the Fort Bliss facility as early as 2021. Protestors accused the facility of being rife with sexual abuse as well as substandard living conditions.