Biden Administration Reopens Trump-Era Migrant Child Facility in Texas

Dozens of migrant teenagers reportedly started arriving Monday at a migrant child facility in Texas—the first such facility opened since President Joe Biden’s inauguration last month. According to The Washington Post, the emergency facility in Carrizo Springs was opened under Trump in 2019, but closed after one month. The Biden administration has now reopened the facility, which can hold as many as 700 children. According to the Post, government officials justified the move by saying there’s been a spike in unaccompanied children crossing the border, and the capacity to hold them has been cut in by half by the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to reopen a Trump-era facility has been met with bitter disappointment by immigration advocates. Linda Brandmiller, a San Antonio immigration lawyer, told the Post: “It’s unnecessary, it’s costly, and it goes absolutely against everything [President] Biden promised he was going to do... It’s a step backward, is what it is. It’s a huge step backward.”