The Trump administration has selected Tornillo, Texas, for the construction of tents to house the overflow of immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new "zero tolerance" policy, according to three sources familiar with the decision.
NBC News, citing those sources, reported that the Department of Health and Human Services will erect a "tent city," full of large tents whose walls touch the ground, which is estimated to hold approximately 450 beds for children.
It will not be the first time the U.S. government has erected tent cities to house immigrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection used tents to house an influx of immigrants in 2014 and at the end of the Obama administration. But now the overflow of a particular immigrant population — in this case, children — is a government-created problem.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story used a photo of a crying young Honduran asylum seeker being detained near the U.S.-Mexico border. Her father recently revealed that she was not separated from her family while under U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. She was being held with her mother at a detention center in Texas. Because the pair were not separated under the “zero tolerance” policy, this photo has been removed.
