releases: https://hurd.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/immigrant-children-be-released-faster-tornillo-tent-city-hhs-policy-change
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://hurd.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/immigrant-children-be-released-faster-tornillo-tent-city-hhs-policy-change | Immigrant children to be released faster from Tornillo tent city with HHS policy change | 2018-12-18 | 2018 | 2018-12 | Republican | House | TX | Will Hurd | H001073 | hurd.house.gov | legacy | Undocumented immigrant children willbereleased quicker from the Tornillo tent city and othersheltersafter a policy change regarding the fingerprinting of sponsors' households. Abacklog ofFBI background checksof sponsor families had been blamed fordelaying the release of unaccompanied immigrant children held in Tornillo and other government-contracted shelters across the nation. The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced that it waschanging the way it conducts background checks, which will speed up the release of children. Fingerprints and FBI background checks still will be required of all sponsors but not from all members of a sponsor's household, an HHS spokesperson said. A search of U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrest records is still part of the sponsor background check, HHS said. The government will continue to conduct a public records check of all adults in a household "to ensure child safety," HHS said in a statement. There wereabout 2,800 children, ages 13-17, as of last weekat the controversial tent city at the Tornillo border port of entry outside El Paso, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Several members of Congress have called on the Trump administration to close the facility, saying that children belong with their parents or relatives instead of being detainedbythe government. Whenchildren are released from shelters, they are placed with a relative or sponsor in the United States as their cases gothrough immigration court proceedings. The temporary shelter in Tornillo opened in June and initially housed about 300 children before significantly expanding. Also in June, the government put into place a new policy that required all sponsors and household members to be fingerprinted as part of the background check. HHS saidthat the fingerprint background checks of all household members had generally not found additional child welfare risks and that the fingerprints checks had increased the time children spent at the shelters. HHS reports that 79 percent of the childrenat the Tornillo facility are boysand spend an average of 33 days at the site.The shelter has 3,800 beds. Since it opened, the shelterhas housed 6,000 children, with 3,100 having been released from the facility, HHS said. The children are mostly from Guatemala, El Salvadorand Honduras, officials have said. In October, about 60 percent of the 1,500children housed at the temporary facility were waiting for the background check results in order to be released, said the commander who works for BCFS, the nonprofit contracted to run the shelter. Calls for shelter's closure RepublicanU.S. Rep. Will Hurd, whose district runs from San Antonio to eastern El Paso County, on Tuesday joined other members of Congress in calling for the shelter's closure. In a series of tweets, Hurdasked that HHS "stop intentionally delaying" the release of children to relatives or sponsors in the U.S. or to family in their home countries. "We are the United States of America. ... We are better than this," Hurd said. On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso,and U.S. Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar of El Paso joined Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Tina Smith of Minnesotaand Democratic U.S. Rep. Judy Chu of California in a tour of the Tornillo shelter. Merkley said 1,300 of the children at Tornillo have family members and sponsors who have completed fingerprint background checks but had yet to be released. The contract between the federal government and BCFSexpires Dec. 31. O'Rourkesaid the contracthas yet to be renewed. Multiple protests have taken place since June demanding the closure of theTornillotent city. O'Rourke said the government has already spent more than $144 million to run the Tornillo facility since it opened in June, and the government has earmarked a total of $300 million for the operation. The Tornillo shelteris part of an HHS network of about100 facilities in 17 states. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |