San Diego County has answered a call by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to house unaccompanied minors who cross the U.S. border illegally. Under the federally funded HHS Refugee Resettlement Program, children who cross the border without parents will be offered food, shelter, and healthcare until they can be processed. In San Diego, 70 of the 700 girls currently being housed at the San Diego Convention Center have tested positive for COVID-19.
More children are expected to arrive each day until the shelter reaches it’s socially-distanced capacity of 1400,
The San Diego Union-Tribune quotes Becerra:
“The County and City of San Diego has generously offered to partner with the Department as we abide by the law to provide unaccompanied children with food, sanitation and shelter. Our task is to protect the health and safety of unaccompanied children, who are under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, while they go through their immigration proceedings.”
The convention center is scheduled to be used for 90 days, with the children staying on average of 30-35 days, until they can be released to relatives in the United States or with “other sponsors,” according to Fox 5 in San Diego.
But these children aren’t only getting food, shelter, and medical care. San Diego is soliciting teachers to show up at the convention center to provide in-person education to the migrant children staying there.
The support for providing education for the illegal immigrant children at the convention center comes after a long battle with teacher’s unions in the district to set a date to reopen schools. The district’s website states that schools will finally reopen on April 12th, after being closed to students for more than a year.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY