US opens new mass shelter in Texas for migrant children

The federal government is opening a new mass shelter for migrant children near the U.S-Mexico border and is considering housing children on three military bases to add 3,000 more beds to the overtaxed system in the coming weeks.

Migrant children will soon be sent from the border to a complex once used to house oil field workers in Carrizo Springs, Texas.

Office of Refugee Resettlement spokesman Mark Weber says all the new facilities will be considered temporary emergency facilities, so they won’t be subject to state child welfare licensing requirements.

The expansion comes after the government announced it would cut recreation, English-language courses and legal services for the 13,200 migrant children in its care.

Attorneys said that violates a settlement that requires the government to provide education to children in custody.