150 migrant minors were slated to arrive later in the day (not present yet) and an April 22 City release said media access won't be permitted when they do arrive. "To protect the identity and well being of the children staying at the shelter, all of whom are minors under the age of 18, public access, including media access, is not permitted...Once the children arrive, for their security and privacy, general public tours will not be allowed."
The April 22 City release indicated children at the shelter will be under the care/custody of the federal Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS.) On arrival, a youth care worker will be assigned to supervise their care and other staff "will provide health and medical care, case management services to ensure reunification with a relative or verified sponsor, mental health counseling, and educational services." "Most children are expected to stay at the HHS shelter between 7 to 10 days while HHS facilitates the reunification process," the release said.
It's not immediately clear why reporters were restricted to pooled coverage of the Convention Center facilities. Critics of the Trump administration charged it was putting children in "cages" but when the Biden administration initially faced a surge of migrant minors, independent reporters revealed continuing similar practices. Stung by the whistle-blowing reports, the Biden administration scrambled to make changes (pool reporters saw no Convention Center "cages.") However politically progressive groups (locally including Long Beach Forward locally) have publicly criticized curent policies that result in the de facto custody/incarceration of migrant minors. While supporting the tempoprary use of the Convention Center (slated to expire on Aug. 2 to allow return of Convention Center business), Mayor Garcia straddled the issue by saying the current immigrant system is broken and requires changes.
Below is pooled text filed by Nathaniel Percy and Hayley Munguia of the Southern California News Group:
...The first group of migrant children will likely arrive at the Long Beach Convention Center on Thursday, April 22, making it the second of three shelters for immigrant minors to come online in Southern California amid an ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border.
The center will house about 1,000 migrant children, mostly young girls ages 5 and up. That may include pairs or groups of siblings, but the facility will not be used specifically for siblings found at the border together, as city officials stated earlier this month.
The first group to arrive will be relatively small — about 12 children — and they will first receive health screenings for communicable diseases and allergies, among other potential concerns, said Cmdr. Nick Munoz of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. In all, 30 children should arrive by the end of the day Thursday, said Bonnie Preston, acting regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Region 9.
Munoz’s and Preston’s comments came during a tour of the Convention Center Thursday morning, during which local elected officials got a glimpse at how the facility is set up to accommodate the children.
Yet, officials are still wrapping up construction and final preparations at the center.
A migrant shelter in San Diego is currently operating for about 500 teen girls. A third shelter is expected to eventually come on in Pomona.
In Long Beach, 12 doctors from UCLA were expected to arrive at noon to provide the health screenings, Munoz said, and his federal agency also has a nine-person team on hand.
How many people will staff the Convention Center in total wasn’t immediately known.
The center, though, is set up to accommodate all of the children’s needs.
Conference rooms will be used as classrooms, with cohorts of 30 children receiving lessons together. The children would get at least three hours of lessons per day, Preston said.
In Exhibit Hall B, pods of 30 cots each had been set up, separated by beige curtains. In one pod, the cots had been made up with white sheets, a pillow and a folded blanket. Some of the cots had books on them, as well as school supplies and backpacks — and two pairs of shoes underneath.
Toward the end of the hall, there was a lounge area with several sofas and tables. Toward the north end, there there rows of dining tables and chairs.
Projectors displayed pink butterflies onto the north wall.
"We want to make the area warm and welcoming for the children," said Charlie Beirne, general manager of the Convention Center. "They’re coming in through some traumatic experiences."
The recreation area, on large grey carpets, included soccer nets, two large Jenga sets and boards for beanbag toss. Two big screens accommodated both movies and video games, while tables covered with snacks sat across the hall.
Outside that hall, a recreation area was being outfitted with turf, allowing the children to have time to play outdoors, Garcia said. That area also included trailers with showers, with a not-yet determined schedule of how many times a week the children will bathe.
The children will have multiple hours of recreation time set aside per day, Preston said.
As they arrive, the children will be grouped in pods of 30, each led by a staff member who will guide them during various scheduled activities each day, Preston said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to provide advisors for mask-wearing for the youth, Preston said.
The City Council earlier this month OK’d letting the federal government use the Convention Center as a temporary shelter for kids found at the southern border without a parent.
Kids will arrive at the shelter with plans already in place to unify them with a family member or sponsor in the United States.
The Convention Center has legally not been able to hold events for the last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s set to change this fall. City officials have said the shelter will close Aug. 2 at the latest, which will allow conventions that have already been planned to move forward.
The mass vaccination site in the Convention Center parking lot will also not be impacted by the shelter’s operations.
The federal government’s request to use the site as a temporary shelter came amid a surge of unaccompanied minors, fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, have sought to cross the southern border. Border authorities encountered nearly 19,000 children without a parent last month, an all-time monthly high.
With the facility sitting vacant, city officials have said using the site for a humanitarian cause was an easy decision to make.
"Long Beach has a proud and long history of welcoming and helping immigrants and refugees,"Garcia said in a statement earlier this month. "From our Cambodian community to the work done by our churches and faith organizations, we have led with compassion and kindness."
Long Beach became home to the largest concentration of Cambodians outside the country itself after thousands sought refuge from genocide in their homeland in the 1970s and ’80s. And housing immigrant children in need, he said, is an extension of that legacy.
"As an immigrant," Garcia said, "I know how important it is to support all people, especially children — and I am proud to support our country in this important work."
