Refugee Children at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center
Migrant children wait outside the KBH Convention Center in Dallas.
Under Title 42, the US southern border has been closed to all single adults and families. However, the vulnerable children and minors have been relocated from border control facilities to emergency, unlicensed facilities. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas was one of the megasites that opened to compensate for the flood of unaccompanied minors and operated under a lease obtained through a federal stimulus sent to Dallas. As of March, the Dallas facility was housing approximately 1,500 children but peaked at capacity with 2,300 occupants. As a solution to the displacement of so many children, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was leased for 75 days for the purpose of housing these children, specifically boys from 13 to 17.
“While the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was a valiant effort to remove children from the controversial and dehumanizing facilities maintained by Border Patrol, the children are nonetheless carted around between overcrowded and underfed facilities.”
The lease, starting from March 17th and expiring on June 2nd, was specifically designed to be a temporary solution. That which is ‘temporary’ ironically seems to be the only constant in the lives of the migrant children; temporary shelter, temporary solutions, temporarily cared about. While the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was a valiant effort to remove children from the controversial and dehumanizing facilities maintained by Border Patrol, the children are nonetheless carted around between overcrowded and underfed facilities. Improving conditions for children from the conditions expected at Border Patrol sites is hardly a victory, as providing humane conditions for children should already be the standard. Lawyer Wendy Young who was a volunteer at the facility was quoted saying that “the goal is to get those kids out of there as soon as possible”. Volunteers reported mismanagement of food rationing, severely limited access to fresh air and outside privileges, depressing indoor conditions, and mistreatment from the contracted workers. The children were even reportedly dissuaded from a hunger strike for fear of their health.
The expiration of the lease at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center leads to the question, what next? The best-case scenario and desired goal is for as many children as possible to be placed with sponsors or family members that have been cleared. For the other children, they are likely transferred to the Fort Bliss megasite in El Paso, where they will wait to receive a sponsor. The conditions at the larger El Paso site are not much of an improvement. The protest that occurred on June 8th outside the military base, led by the Border Network for Human Rights and other border groups, speaks to the severity of the conditions the children are subjected to. The protest and vigil took place to demand freedom for the children, and to publicly renounce the inadequate conditions. It is clear that volunteers and citizens are the backbone for change, and are at the forefront of an America that demands human decency to be the leading standard.
