XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: kunsthallen@bkunsthal.dk   
      
   McALLEN, Texas (AP) - The U.S. government plans to turn an empty   
   55,000-square-foot warehouse in South Texas into a processing   
   facility for unaccompanied children who have entered the country   
   illegally, according to construction permits.   
      
   The permits, obtained by The Associated Press Monday through a   
   public records request, reveal plans for four fence-enclosed   
   pods inside a corrugated steel warehouse in McAllen that could   
   eventually accommodate about 1,000 children. The Department of   
   Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.   
      
   More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been arrested since   
   October after entering the United States illegally, a 99 percent   
   increase over the same period a year earlier. About three-   
   quarters of those children have been arrested in the Rio Grande   
   Valley in South Texas.   
      
   U.S. law requires that the children be processed and transferred   
   to custody of the Health and Human Services Department within 72   
   hours of their arrest. The wave of children has overwhelmed   
   Border Patrol stations in South Texas that are ill-equipped to   
   house children for an extended period of time, so Homeland   
   Security has been flying planeloads of children to Arizona for   
   processing at a facility in Nogales before sending them to   
   shelters around the country.   
      
   The new processing facility would be less than a mile from the   
   Rio Grande Valley's busiest Border Patrol station. Floor plans   
   show rows of cells with unsecured doors on either side of open   
   "interaction/play" areas. Boys and girls would be separated and   
   portable toilets would be installed.   
      
   "Minors will be staged here until processing is completed and   
   then they (will be) moved to a different location," according to   
   a fire protection engineering analysis submitted by the U.S.   
   General Services Administration.   
      
   That agency, which provides buildings for government operations,   
   signed a one-year lease for the property.   
      
   The documents do not indicate when renovations would be   
   complete. City attorney Kevin Pagan said McAllen had expedited   
   the permitting process.   
      
   Most of the children are from Honduras, Guatemala and El   
   Salvador. Many are fleeing widespread gang violence, and some   
   are looking to reunite with parents already in the United States.   
      
   Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote an open letter to   
   Central American parents warning them of the dangers of such a   
   journey and emphasizing that the children could be deported.   
   "The criminal smuggling networks that you pay to deliver your   
   child to the United States have no regard for his or her safety   
   and well-being - to them, your child is a commodity to be   
   exchanged for a payment," the letter said.   
      
   http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140624_ap_f843a39d1   
   2cc4c82bb82d54fe57e441b.html   
      
       
      
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