Fourteen hundred migrant children to be housed at San Diego Convention Center, officials say

The San Diego Convention Center will house as many as 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children seeking asylum as Biden administration officials attempt to address a surge that stretched existing immigration facilities beyond capacity in recent days, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday.

"The Emergency Intake Site will provide ORR with needed capacity to accept children from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) into its care where they can be safely processed, cared for and either released to a sponsor or transferred to an appropriate ORR shelter for longer-term care," an ORR spokesperson said in a statement. "The Emergency Intake Site is intended for use as a temporary measure." Migrant children housed at the facility will have access to "required standards of care for children." Including "clean and comfortable sleeping quarters, meals, toiletries, laundry, and access to medical services," the spokesperson added. Officials will screen occupants for COVID-19. The HHS did not specify how quickly the children would be transferred to the facility, though local officials said the first migrants could arrive by this weekend.