The past two years saw the largest number of unaccompanied minors crossing the United States border: 58,000 in 2014 and 34,000 in 2015. Because of these large numbers of children, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is opening temporary shelters for unaccompanied minors in New Mexico, Colorado and Florida. This week, the Department of Health and Human Services released video from the first shelter to open, at Holloman Air Force Base in southeastern New Mexico.
Up to 250 children are currently housed at Holloman. The Office of Refugee Resettlement said the facility has the capacity to house up to 700 children. The children are from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and range from 13-17 years of age.
According to a Health and Human Services spokesman, the children will stay at the temporary facility for about 32 days before they can be reunified with a parent or sponsor already in the United States. Most of the children here already have a sponsor in mind, he added.
While at Holloman, the children are kept on a strict schedule with recreational and educational activities.
A spokesman said their favorite activities include playing dominoes, soccer and basketball, as well as weaving friendship bracelets.
Children were given five changes of clothes and a hygiene kit when they arrived at the facility. They receive three meals and two snacks a day.
In 2014, it cost about $500 per child each day to operate this kind of temporary facility. A cost estimate for the Holloman facility was not immediately available.
