For Migrant Children in Federal Care, a ‘Sense of Desperation’

The Biden administration’s drive to empty detention centers at the border has created new concerns as children fill emergency shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

WASHINGTON — In a federal shelter in Dallas, migrant children sleep in a windowless convention center room under fluorescent lights that never go dark. At a military base in El Paso, teenagers pile onto bunk cots, and some say they have gone days without bathing. And in Erie, Pa., problems began emerging within days of the shelter’s creation: “Fire safety system is a big concern,” an internal report noted. Some of the hot water heaters were not working, and lice was “a big issue and seems to be increasing.”