New cage facility for migrant children underway in Rio Grande Valley
DONNA, Texas — A new holding center for unaccompanied kids and migrants is being built “as fast as they can” in the Rio Grande Valley as US Customs and Border Protection officials struggle to manage a flood of immigrants that’s left existing facilities well beyond capacity, The Post has learned.
The temporary center is under construction in Donna on a 40-acre plot of land, adjacent to a tent city that CBP opened in February for migrant children that’s been criticized as the same sort of “cages” President Biden vowed to never allow under his watch.
“They’re building another one as fast as they can,” a CBP source told The Post on Monday.
“They clearly intend to do 24/7 construction,” the source went on, noting a series of light towers that have been set up on the land, which allows for nighttime construction.
“Usually construction workers work during the day so that tells you the speed of which they’re trying to get this thing up.”
The facility is expected to be “huge,” the official noted, and the plot of land is large enough for more than 35 football fields.
The Post visited the site Saturday afternoon and saw large construction vehicles plowing through the land, moving lighting equipment and digging into the earth before a security guard told the reporter they needed to leave. The guard said the grounds were federal property and law enforcement would be called if they didn’t immediately leave.
Early Monday, photos from inside the current UAC facility were leaked by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) showing devastating, crowded conditions with hordes of young migrants sleeping on mats and huddled together in silver space blankets.
The elected official, who didn’t take the photos, said the facility had “terrible conditions” for children and one pod within the tents, designed to hold 260 people, had 400 unaccompanied male kids.
The 185,000-square-foot facility is surrounded by a black fence that makes it difficult to see what’s going on beyond the perimeter, but at least a dozen tour buses, and multiple blue HVAC vehicles, were visible during The Post’s Saturday visit.
A steady stream of CBP and US Border Patrol vehicles were seen driving in and out of the facility.
The Biden administration has been grappling with an immigration crisis on pace to be the worst in 20 years after they rolled back a series of strict policies set in place by former President Donald Trump.
Unaccompanied kids, families and single adults have flooded the border in recent months, some of whom told The Post they expected Biden to help them and came because he was more welcoming to migrants than Trump.
Between January and February, the number of migrants jumping the border increased by 28 percent, CBP data shows, and the number of migrants flooding the Rio Grande Valley, which is ground zero for the crisis, is set to double in March.
When asked for comment on the facility, CBP deferred to the US Department of Health and Human Services, which didn’t respond to The Post’s request.