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Last migrant teenagers leave large detention camp in Texas

Last migrant teenagers leave large detention camp in Texas
5 years 9 months 3 weeks ago Friday, January 11 2019 Jan 11, 2019 January 11, 2019 1:03 PM January 11, 2019 in News - AP Texas Headlines

By The Associated Press

TORNILLO, Texas (AP) - The nonprofit group running what once was the largest U.S. detention camp housing migrant teenagers says the last children have left the facility.

The federal grantee that operated the tent city in Tornillo, Texas, said the center is shutting down beginning Friday. BCFS Health and Human Services' spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said everything would be removed from the site by the end of January.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversees the care of migrant children. The agency did not immediately respond, but a spokesman said last month the center stopped receiving new referrals.

The Tornillo facility opened in June in an isolated pocket of the Texas desert with capacity for 360 children. It expanded into a guarded detention camp that held more than 2,700 largely Central American teens.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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