Texas Tent Camp Housing Migrant Children Will Triple in Size

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that they will be tripling the size of a tent camp meant for migrant children to hold “as many as 3,800” beds, The Washington Post reports. The Tornillo-Guadalupe Land Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas currently has 1,200 beds, and was established in June as a temporary shelter during the Trump administration's “zero tolerance” family separation policy that separated about 2,500 children from their parents. HHS say the expansion is necessary due to the increased number of minors the U.S. has taken in after the policy was reversed in July. Administration officials and border agents told the newspaper that the number of families attempting to cross the southern border has increased in recent weeks. Spokesman for HHS’s Administration for Children and Families Kenneth Wolfe told the Post that the “zero tolerance” policy was “not driving this need” since it was removed earlier in the summer. Wolfe also said that the agency currently has 12,800 minors under its care—the “highest number ever.”